orquesta-cli

orquesta-cli

AI-powered coding assistant with local LLM support - the self-hosted alternative to Claude CLI.

Use your own LLM (vLLM, Ollama, LM Studio, Azure OpenAI, or any OpenAI-compatible API) as a full coding agent - no cloud dependency, no subscription costs.

⚠️ Security Warning

IMPORTANT: Orquesta CLI gives AI models the ability to execute commands on your system. Please read SECURITY.md before use.

Quick Security Tips:

• ✅ Use only trusted LLM endpoints
• ✅ Enable manual approval for production (autoApprove: false)
• ✅ Run in isolated environments (Docker/VM)
• ✅ Review commands before execution
• ❌ Never expose sensitive credentials as environment variables

Why orquesta-cli?

Freedom from cloud dependencies - Run your own LLM infrastructure:

Feature	Claude CLI	orquesta-cli
LLM Provider	Anthropic (cloud)	Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint
Hosting	Subscription required	Self-hosted / on-premises
Options	Claude only	vLLM, Ollama, LM Studio, Azure OpenAI, local models
Cost	Per-token pricing	Your infrastructure
Privacy	Data sent to Anthropic	Data stays local
Integration	-	Works with orquesta-agent

Key Features

Benefit	Description
Zero Cloud Dependency	Runs entirely on your local/on-prem LLM. Your code never leaves your network.
No API Cost	Use open-source models (Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek, etc.) for free.
Any OpenAI-Compatible API	Works with vLLM, Ollama, LM Studio, Azure OpenAI, Google Gemini, and more.
Autonomous Coding Agent	Reads, searches, edits, and creates code files - not just chat.
Plan & Execute	Breaks complex tasks into TODO steps and executes them sequentially.
Safe by Default	Supervised mode requires your approval before any file modification.
Office Automation	Control Excel, Word, PowerPoint directly via PowerShell/COM (Windows).
Browser Automation	Chrome/Edge CDP control - navigate, click, screenshot, scrape data.
Your Own Browser	Drive the Chrome you are already using — real profile, real logins — via the Orquesta extension.
orquesta-agent Compatible	Works seamlessly with orquesta-agent for remote execution

Installation

npm install -g orquesta-cli

Or run directly with npx:

npx orquesta-cli

Quick Start

Interactive Mode

orquesta

This launches the full interactive UI with plan & execute, file browser, session history, etc.

One-Shot Prompt Execution

orquesta -p "fix the bug in auth.ts"

This executes the prompt and exits - compatible with orquesta-agent for remote execution.

Configuration

orquesta            # Setup wizard on first run
/settings           # Settings menu while running

Any OpenAI-compatible API works:

• vLLM: http://localhost:8000/v1
• Ollama: http://localhost:11434/v1
• LM Studio: http://localhost:1234/v1
• Azure OpenAI: https://YOUR_RESOURCE.openai.azure.com/openai/deployments/YOUR_DEPLOYMENT
• Google Gemini: Compatible with OpenAI SDK
• Any internal LLM server

Configuration is stored in ~/.orquesta-cli/config.json.

Usage with orquesta-agent

orquesta-cli works seamlessly with orquesta-agent for remote execution:

# On your server/VM
npm install -g orquesta-cli

# Configure your local LLM endpoint
orquesta  # Follow setup wizard

# Run orquesta-agent (it will use orquesta-cli instead of claude)
npx orquesta-agent --token <your-token>

orquesta-agent will execute prompts using orquesta-cli with your local LLM.

Commands & Features

Plan & Execute

Automatically decomposes requests into TODO steps and executes them:

You: Add a logging system to the project

TODO List                            1/3
  [x] Create logger.ts
  [ ] Add imports to existing code
  [ ] Apply error handling

Supervised Mode

Every file modification requires your explicit approval:

• Tab to toggle between Auto / Supervised mode
• Only file modification tools need approval (read/search are always allowed)
• Reject with feedback to guide the agent's next attempt

Slash Commands

Command	Description
/help	Show available commands
/clear	Reset conversation
/compact	Compress conversation
/load	Load saved session
/model	Switch LLM model
/settings	Settings menu
/usage	Token usage statistics
/sync	Sync LLM configs with Orquesta dashboard
/tool	Toggle optional tools (browser, browser extension, office)

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Ctrl+C	Exit
ESC	Interrupt current task
Tab	Toggle Auto / Supervised
@	File browser
/	Command autocomplete

Command-Line Options

orquesta [options]

Options:
  -p, --print <prompt>           Execute a prompt and exit (non-interactive)
  --token <token>                Connect to Orquesta with CLI token (oclt_xxx)
  --switch-project [projectId]   Switch to different project
  --status                       Show Orquesta connection status
  --disconnect                   Disconnect from Orquesta
  --sync                         Sync LLM configs with dashboard
  --dangerously-skip-permissions Skip all permission prompts (auto-approve)
  --verbose                      Enable verbose logging
  --debug                        Enable debug logging
  --llm-log                      Log LLM requests/responses
  --eval                         Evaluation mode (NDJSON event streaming)
  -V, --version                  Output version number

Orquesta Dashboard Integration

Connect to Orquesta to sync LLM configurations across your team:

# First time: Connect with token (get from https://orquesta.live/dashboard/orquesta-cli)
orquesta --token oclt_xxxxx

# You'll see a project selector - choose your project
# LLM endpoints will auto-sync from dashboard

# Later: Switch to different project
orquesta --switch-project

# Check connection status
orquesta --status

# Manual sync (also available via /sync command while running)
orquesta --sync

Office Automation (60+ Tools)

Windows only - Control Microsoft Office via PowerShell/COM:

App	Capabilities
Excel	Read/write cells, create charts, formatting, conditional formatting, pivot tables, formulas
Word	Write text, headers, tables, images, footnotes, find/replace, styles, TOC
PowerPoint	Create slides, add text/images/shapes, apply themes, speaker notes

Browser Automation

Chrome/Edge automation via Chrome DevTools Protocol:

• Navigate pages, click elements, fill forms
• Take screenshots, extract text
• No external server required

The browser_* tools launch their own Chrome with a clean profile, so the pages they see are always logged out. Enable them with /tool → Browser.

Your Own Browser (Orquesta extension)

The browser_ext_* tools drive the browser you are already using — your real profile, your real sessions — instead of launching a clean one. That is the whole point: an authenticated dashboard, a staging site behind SSO, or a page whose bug only appears once you are logged in.

Two steps, both local:

/tool                        # 1. enable "Browser Extension (your own browser)"
                             # 2. click "Pair" in the extension popup and type the
                             #    code browser_ext_status reports

Enabling the group starts the bridge — a small daemon on 127.0.0.1:8791-8798 that the extension talks to — so there is nothing to run by hand. It is spawned detached and outlives the CLI on purpose: it holds the pairing, so short orquesta -p runs and several sessions share one browser without pairing again. Its log is ~/.orquesta-cli/browser-bridge.log.

Run it yourself with npx orquesta-bridge when you want to watch it, point ORQUESTA_BRIDGE_CMD at a checkout to develop against one, and set ORQUESTA_BRIDGE_AUTOSTART=0 to stop the CLI starting one at all.

The extension lives in its own repo (orquesta-extension) and is loaded unpacked while it is unreleased.

Tool	What it does
browser_ext_status	Is the bridge up, is a browser paired
browser_ext_tabs / _open / _reload	List tabs, open a URL, reload
browser_ext_click / _fill / _press / _select	Interact with the page
browser_ext_text / _html / _eval	Read the page, run JS in it
browser_ext_screenshot	Capture the visible tab
browser_ext_console / _network	Console messages and requests
browser_ext_wait	Wait for a selector or navigation
browser_ext_embed	Inject the Orquesta embed widget into the page

Nothing leaves the machine: the CLI talks to the bridge over loopback with a 0600 token in ~/.orquesta-cli/, and the bridge talks to the extension over a paired local WebSocket.

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

orquesta-cli is its own MCP client — it does not shell out to Claude Code or any other CLI. Servers connect at startup (interactive and -p), and their tools are registered as mcp__<server>__<tool>, so the model uses them like any built-in tool.

orquesta mcp list                                   # every source, and which entry wins
orquesta mcp list --probe                           # connect for real and list the tools
orquesta mcp add fs -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem .
orquesta mcp add api --url https://example.com/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"
orquesta mcp add fetch --builtin fetch              # bundled server
orquesta mcp remove fs

Transports: stdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE, and builtin (bundled).

Configuration sources, lowest to highest precedence — a later one overrides an earlier one with the same server name:

Source	Notes
built-in	Bundled servers, see below
~/.claude.json	Inherited from Claude Code, so servers added with claude mcp add work here too. Turn off with orquesta mcp inherit off
~/.orquesta-cli/config.json	What orquesta mcp add writes
<project>/.mcp.json	The Claude Code project convention, read verbatim
<project>/.orquesta/mcp.json	Same content, under the Orquesta folder

Built-in servers are compiled into the CLI and linked in-process — no child process, no npx, no Node.js, nothing to install. They are the only servers that work on a machine running the standalone binary with no Node present:

Id	Tools
fetch	Retrieve http/https URLs as text (HTML converted to readable text)

External MCP servers are npm packages, so they still need Node.js on the machine. When it is missing, the server is reported with that reason instead of a bare spawn error.

Session Management

• Save and restore conversation history
• Auto-context compression at 80% capacity
• Resume work exactly where you left off

Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/orquesta/orquesta.git
cd orquesta/packages/orquesta-cli

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Run locally
npm start
# Or: node dist/cli.js

Requirements

• Node.js v20+
• npm v10+
• Git
• Windows (for Office/Browser automation via PowerShell)

Comparison with Claude CLI

Both tools are AI-powered coding assistants but differ in architecture:

Claude CLI (Official)

• ✅ Direct Anthropic API access
• ✅ Claude 4.5/4.6 models
• ✅ Official support
• ❌ Requires subscription
• ❌ Cloud-only
• ❌ Data sent to Anthropic

orquesta-cli

• ✅ Self-hosted LLM support
• ✅ Any OpenAI-compatible model
• ✅ Full data privacy
• ✅ No subscription needed (BYO compute)
• ✅ Plan & Execute architecture
• ✅ Office/Browser automation
• ❌ Model quality depends on your LLM choice

Use Claude CLI if: You want the best model quality and have a subscription.

Use orquesta-cli if: You need data privacy, self-hosting, or want to use specific models (local, on-prem, etc.).

License

MIT

Links

• Dashboard: https://orquesta.live
• GitHub: https://github.com/orquesta/orquesta
• npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/orquesta-cli