Orca v1.4.252 forks a chat from any reply, and /plan plans before it builds

Orca v1.4.252 lets you fork a chat from any finished reply. The fork tries another direction, and the original chat stays exactly as it was.

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Orca v1.4.252 forks a chat from any finished reply

From

any finished response in Chat UI

Fork

a new chat to try another direction

Original

stays exactly as it was

In Claude and Codex chats, the /plan command switches to Plan mode, and it stays on when you reopen the chat. One catch: downgrade to v1.4.251 and those chats won't open.

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Type /plan in a Claude or Codex chat to plan before it builds

Enter

/plan switches to Plan mode

Leave

the X on the Plan pill

Reopen

the chat is still in Plan mode

Downgrade to v1.4.251 and chats that used Plan mode won’t open until you upgrade again.

Below the chat composer, Orca now shows which machine, workspace and branch the chat runs on. And when the agent opens a pull request, a card for it shows up in the chat.

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The chat composer shows the machine, workspace and branch

Machine

local or remote, named like the sidebar

Workspace

click to copy, hover for the full path

Branch

stays visible in a narrow pane

A card appears in the chat for each pull request the agent opens.

On your phone, Orca reconnects sooner and streams chats smoothly. Unsent chat, review and Tasks text now survives a dropped connection. An unused pairing QR code expires after ten minutes.

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On the phone, Orca reconnects sooner and keeps what you typed

Faster

opens and reconnects sooner, streams chats smoothly

Reading

Markdown renders math, GitHub alerts and task boxes

Drafts

unsent chat, review and Tasks text survives a dropped connection

Unused pairing codes now expire: the phone QR code after 10 minutes, the pair-another-computer link after 60. Paired devices are unaffected.

Dictation lets you pick your language, keeps your first and last words, and returns on-device text about a third sooner. Zipformer English is gone; its users move to Parakeet v2, which may need a download.

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Dictation takes your language and keeps every word

Language

pick it in Settings › Voice

Words

the first and last ones are kept

Speed

on-device text comes back about a third sooner

Zipformer EN is gone. Its users move to Parakeet v2, which may need a download in Settings › Voice.

Orca now needs macOS 13.4 or later, up from macOS 12. Older Macs stay on their last compatible build. Any Mac on macOS 13 can update to 13.7 and keep getting Orca.

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Orca now needs macOS 13.4 or later, up from macOS 12

Older Macs

stay on their last compatible build, with a notice

Homebrew

refuses the upgrade on macOS 13.0 to 13.3

The fix

any Mac on macOS 13 can update to 13.7

Workspaces now nest under a folder workspace, even across machines, and new profiles open at your home folder. If you plan before you build, I'd update today for Plan mode alone.

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Workspaces, new profiles and the browser proxy change too

Workspaces

nest under a folder workspace, even on other machines

New profiles

open in a folder workspace at your home folder

Browser proxy

needs a per-session token only Orca’s agents get

Plan before you build? Update today.

Orca v1.4.252 release notes on GitHub