ECC vs orca
ECC is much bigger: 249.0k stars against 62.0k. Over the days we have tracked them ECC moved +8.1% and orca +242.8%, so orca is growing faster right now.
They split the axes: ECC leads on noise control, orca on setup ease.
Stars and commit dates come from our own daily tracking. The six axes are read off each project's documentation by our review pipeline, so they describe what a project says about itself, not what we measured in its code.
Where they stand today
A harness-native, cross-harness agent operating system that bundles skills, session/state memory, verification loops, and AgentShield for production multi-harness workflows.
- Stars
- 249.0k
- Tracked growth
- +8.1%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 16h ago
- Language
- JavaScript
- License
- MIT
- Cost to run
- Free OSS; optional Pro GitHub App ($19/seat/mo) + your model/API costs
Runs any CLI coding agent side-by-side in isolated git worktrees (including remote SSH worktrees) with a desktop app and mobile companion for steering and comparison.
- Stars
- 62.0k
- Tracked growth
- +242.8%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 17m ago
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- MIT
- Cost to run
- Use your agent subscriptions / API keys
Six axes, head to head
Each axis runs 0 to 5. The label under a score is what that project's own docs claim, not a category average.
| Axis | ECC | orca |
|---|---|---|
Context depth How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository. | ●●●●● Whole-repo analysis | ●●●●● Whole-repo analysis |
Noise control How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only. | ●●●●● Severity gating | ●●●●● Manual review & basic filters |
Customization How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config. | ●●●●● Extensive configs | ●●●●● Custom prompts & scripts |
Privacy Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only. | ●●●●● Fully local | ●●●●● Can run fully local |
Model freedom Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one. | ●●●●● Bring-your-own-key | ●●●●● Any agent / BYO key |
Setup ease What it takes to get a first useful run out of it. | ●●●●● Config + API key | ●●●●● One-click install |
Which one to pick
Pick ECC if…
Production-ready — pick ECC when you need a self-hostable, operator-grade agent harness with built-in skills, memory, verification, and a GitHub App for PR audits.
- Noise control: Severity gating (5/5 against 3/5)
Pick orca if…
Flexible agent support — run your preferred CLI agents locally or remotely, fan prompts across parallel worktrees, and review/merge results from a single desktop + mobile UI.
- Setup ease: One-click install (5/5 against 3/5)
What people want from each one
affaan-m/ECC
stablyai/orca
Hacker News: Orca – Live Programming Environment drew 290 points and 58 comments.
Questions people ask
Is ECC better than orca?
They split the axes: ECC leads on noise control, orca on setup ease. ECC is worth picking when production-ready — pick ECC when you need a self-hostable, operator-grade agent harness with built-in skills, memory, verification, and a GitHub App for PR audits.
Which of ECC and orca keeps my code private?
ECC: Fully local (5/5). orca: Can run fully local (5/5).
What does each one cost to run?
ECC: Free OSS; optional Pro GitHub App ($19/seat/mo) + your model/API costs. orca: Use your agent subscriptions / API keys.
Full profiles: affaan-m/ECC and stablyai/orca. Everything else in Multi-agent orchestration.