Tool Reference

OpenOrca includes 39 built-in tools organized by category. Each tool has a risk level that determines whether it requires user approval.

Permission Levels

Level	Behavior	Examples
ReadOnly	Auto-approved by default	Reading files, searching, thinking
Moderate	Requires approval (unless autoApproveModerate is on)	Writing files, git commit, mkdir
Dangerous	Always requires approval (unless autoApproveAll is on)	Shell execution, git push

You can customize permissions in Configuration. Specific tools can be added to alwaysApprove or disabledTools.

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File System (14 tools)

read_file

Risk: ReadOnly

Read file contents with line numbers.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
path	string	Yes	File path to read
offset	integer	No	Line number to start from
limit	integer	No	Max lines to read

write_file

Risk: Moderate

Create or overwrite a file.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
path	string	Yes	File path to write
content	string	Yes	File content
append	boolean	No	Append to the file instead of overwriting. Defaults to false

edit_file

Risk: Moderate

Replace an exact string in a file. The old_string must match exactly (including whitespace).

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
path	string	Yes	File path
old_string	string	Yes	Text to find
new_string	string	Yes	Replacement text
create_if_missing	boolean	No	When true and the file doesn't exist, create it with new_string as content (old_string must be empty). Defaults to false

multi_edit

Risk: Moderate

Apply multiple edits across one or more files atomically. If any edit fails, all changes are rolled back to their original state.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
edits	array	Yes	Array of edit operations

Each edit in the array:

Property	Type	Required	Description
path	string	Yes	File path to edit
old_string	string	Yes	Text to find
new_string	string	Yes	Replacement text
replace_all	boolean	No	Replace all occurrences (default: false)

The tool executes in three phases:

1. Validate — reads all files and verifies each old_string exists (and is unique unless replace_all is set)
2. Apply — computes all edits in memory
3. Write — writes all files to disk; if any write fails, restores all files from their original content

delete_file

Risk: Moderate

Delete a file or directory.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
path	string	Yes	Path to delete

copy_file

Risk: Moderate

Copy a file or directory.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
source	string	Yes	Source path
destination	string	Yes	Destination path

move_file

Risk: Moderate

Move or rename a file.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
source	string	Yes	Source path
destination	string	Yes	Destination path

rename_file

Risk: Moderate

Rename a file or directory. Creates parent directories for the destination automatically.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
source	string	Yes	The current file or directory path
destination	string	Yes	The new file or directory path
overwrite	boolean	No	Overwrite the destination if it exists. Defaults to false

mkdir

Risk: Moderate

Create a directory (and parent directories).

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
path	string	Yes	Directory path

create_directory

Risk: Moderate

Create a directory and any missing parent directories. Succeeds silently if it already exists.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
path	string	Yes	The path of the directory to create

cd

Risk: Moderate

Change the current working directory.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
path	string	Yes	Directory to change to

glob

Risk: ReadOnly

Find files matching a glob pattern.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
pattern	string	Yes	Glob pattern (e.g., **/*.cs)
path	string	No	Base directory (defaults to cwd)
exclude	string	No	Glob pattern to exclude from results (e.g., **/node_modules/**)

grep

Risk: ReadOnly

Search file contents using regex.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
pattern	string	Yes	Regex pattern
path	string	No	File or directory to search
glob	string	No	Glob filter for files (e.g., *.cs, **/*.json)
context	integer	No	Number of context lines before and after each match. Defaults to 0
case_insensitive	boolean	No	Search case-insensitively. Defaults to false
output_mode	string	No	Output format: content (matching lines, default), files_only (file paths only), count (match counts per file)
max_results	integer	No	Maximum matches to return. Defaults to 500

list_directory

Risk: ReadOnly

List directory contents.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
path	string	No	Directory path (defaults to cwd)
recursive	boolean	No	List entries recursively (capped at 1000 entries). Defaults to false

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Shell (5 tools)

bash

Risk: Dangerous

Execute a shell command. Commands run via cmd.exe on Windows or /bin/bash on Linux/macOS.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
command	string	Yes	Shell command to execute
working_directory	string	No	Directory to run the command in (defaults to cwd)
timeout_seconds	integer	No	Timeout in seconds (default: 120)
description	string	No	Human-readable description of what the command does

start_background_process

Risk: Dangerous

Start a long-running process in the background. Returns a process ID for later use.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
command	string	Yes	Command to run

get_process_output

Risk: ReadOnly

Read output from a background process.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
pid	string	Yes	Process ID

stop_process

Risk: Moderate

Stop a running background process.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
pid	string	Yes	Process ID

list_processes

Risk: ReadOnly

List all background processes and their status (running/exited), command, uptime, and process ID.

No parameters.

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Git (9 tools)

git_status

Risk: ReadOnly

Show working tree status.

git_diff

Risk: ReadOnly

Show changes in the working tree.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
staged	boolean	No	Show only staged changes
path	string	No	Limit diff to a specific path

git_log

Risk: ReadOnly

Show commit history.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
count	integer	No	Number of commits to show
oneline	boolean	No	One-line format

git_commit

Risk: Moderate

Stage files and create a commit.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
message	string	Yes	Commit message
files	string[]	No	Files to stage (defaults to all changes)

git_branch

Risk: Moderate

List, create, or delete branches.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
name	string	No	Branch name to create/delete
delete	boolean	No	Delete the branch

git_checkout

Risk: Moderate

Switch branches or restore files.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
branch	string	Yes	Branch name
create	boolean	No	Create branch if it doesn't exist

git_push

Risk: Dangerous

Push commits to a remote.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
remote	string	No	Remote name (default: origin)
branch	string	No	Branch to push

git_pull

Risk: Moderate

Pull changes from a remote.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
remote	string	No	Remote name (default: origin)
branch	string	No	Branch to pull

git_stash

Risk: Moderate

Stash or restore working directory changes.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
action	string	No	push, pop, list, or drop

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Web & GitHub (3 tools)

web_fetch

Risk: ReadOnly

Fetch content from a URL. Returns the page content as text.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
url	string	Yes	URL to fetch

web_search

Risk: ReadOnly

Search the web using DuckDuckGo.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
query	string	Yes	Search query
count	integer	No	Number of results

github

Risk: Moderate

Run GitHub CLI (gh) commands. Requires gh to be installed and authenticated.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
command	string	Yes	gh command to run (e.g., pr list)

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Network (1 tool)

network_diagnostics

Risk: ReadOnly

Network diagnostics: ping a host, perform DNS lookup, or check HTTP connectivity. Useful for debugging connection issues.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
action	string	Yes	ping, dns_lookup, or check_connection
target	string	Yes	Hostname, domain, or URL to test
timeout_seconds	integer	No	Timeout in seconds (default: 5)

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Archive (1 tool)

archive

Risk: Moderate

Create, extract, or list contents of zip archives.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
action	string	Yes	create, extract, or list
archive_path	string	Yes	Path to the zip archive file
source_path	string	No	Path to compress (file or directory). Required for create.
output_path	string	No	Directory to extract to. Required for extract.

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Utility & Interactive (6 tools)

think

Risk: ReadOnly

A scratchpad for the model to do step-by-step reasoning without taking action. Output is not visible to the user.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
thought	string	Yes	Reasoning content

print

Risk: ReadOnly

Display a message to the user. The message content is always visible regardless of verbosity setting.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
message	string	Yes	The message to display to the user

task_list

Risk: ReadOnly

Track progress on multi-step tasks. The model uses this to maintain a checklist of what's been done and what's left.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
action	string	Yes	add, complete, list, or clear
task	string	No	Task description (for add/complete)

env

Risk: ReadOnly

Inspect environment variables. Use action get to retrieve a specific variable, or list to list all (optionally filtered by prefix).

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
action	string	Yes	get or list
name	string	No	Variable name (required for get)
prefix	string	No	Filter variables by prefix (optional for list)

ask_user

Risk: ReadOnly

Ask the user a question and wait for their response. Used when the model needs clarification.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
question	string	Yes	Question to ask

spawn_agent

Risk: Moderate

Launch an independent sub-agent to handle a focused task. The sub-agent has its own conversation context and tool access.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
task	string	Yes	Task description for the sub-agent
tools	string[]	No	Specific tools to grant (defaults to all)