Install Orbit

Platform Support

Orbit’s CLI runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows, but OS-level sandbox enforcement of agent subprocesses is currently macOS only, via sandbox-exec. The shipped claude, codex, gemini, and grok executor assets declare the macOS sandbox; initialization drops that unsupported primitive on other platforms so those activities run without a kernel-level sandbox. Filesystem policies still apply to Orbit’s own HTTP-tool builtins on every platform.

Install

The recommended project-agnostic install uses the npm binary proxy:

npm install -g @orbit-tools/cli

Node 18 or newer is required. The package downloads the matching native Orbit binary and exposes it on your PATH.

Alternatives

From a trusted source checkout, the release installer detects the platform, downloads the matching release binary, authenticates signed checksums, validates the archive contents, and installs the binary:

./install.sh

For development from a source checkout (requires the Rust toolchain):

make install

Pinned versions and custom install directory

ORBIT_VERSION=v0.9.2 ./install.sh
ORBIT_INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/.local/bin" ./install.sh

ORBIT_VERSION, ORBIT_INSTALL_REPO, and ORBIT_INSTALL_BASE_URL change the release source the installer trusts, so use them only for pinned releases, forks, or controlled test mirrors. ORBIT_INSTALL_BASE_URL may use any downloader-supported scheme, including file:// for tests; the signature check protects artifact integrity, not transport confidentiality. ORBIT_RELEASE_TRUSTED_KEYS_FILE is the preferred override for the full trusted signing-key set, including key IDs, not_after, and revoked_at; it requires ORBIT_RELEASE_TRUSTED_KEYS_FILE_ACKNOWLEDGE_TRUST_CHANGE=1 and should be limited to tests or emergency operations. ORBIT_RELEASE_PUBLIC_KEY_FILE is deprecated in favor of the trusted-keys file (which is a strict superset); it still works for the single-key case and requires ORBIT_RELEASE_PUBLIC_KEY_FILE_ACKNOWLEDGE_TRUST_CHANGE=1.

Initialize State

Orbit has global state and workspace-local state.

orbit init
cd <repo>
orbit workspace init

orbit init seeds default skills under ~/.orbit/skills and links them into ~/.agents/skills and ~/.claude/skills. The same reconcile removes dangling Orbit-owned links for retired default skill IDs; a leftover custom skill is left in place. Workspace skills are optional overrides by skill name.

Pass --mcp to also auto-detect and set up MCP client integrations during workspace initialization:

orbit workspace init --mcp

Configure Orbit

orbit init seeds ~/.orbit/config.toml with crews for detected provider CLIs. See Configuration for file locations and shape.