The Prompt Queue
The queue is the spine of Orbit. Every change you want an agent to make becomes a prompt, and every prompt passes through the queue on its way to being shipped. It is backed by SQLite at ~/.orbit/queue.db, so it survives restarts cleanly and never re-runs work it already finished.
One project, one line
Section titled “One project, one line”Each project has its own queue and its own independent prompt numbering, starting at #1. Prompts run one at a time per project. A prompt claims its unique per-project number at the moment it is inserted — not when you draft it — which is why the number you end up with can differ from the one you typed if other prompts were queued in parallel.
Routing tags
Section titled “Routing tags”Every prompt carries a routing tag. Use complexity: (Low, Medium, High, and beyond) to send the prompt to a model tier configured in settings, or model: to name a model explicitly. The two are mutually exclusive: set both and complexity wins. Tag every prompt so it lands on the right agent.
Dependencies and pre-approval
Section titled “Dependencies and pre-approval”A prompt can declare depends_on: #N, which holds it in a waiting state until prompt #N ships. Waiting cards can be pre-approved — a green “Pre-approved ✓” with an Undo — so the moment the dependency clears, the prompt runs automatically without another trip back to you. Use a bare prompt number in depends_on; annotations break the exact-number matching.
Pausing for input
Section titled “Pausing for input”A running prompt can pause to ask you a question. The card turns amber with the question and a response box; answering starts a continuation run that carries your answer forward, and the original card is marked “Answered — continued as #N.” If you don’t want to answer, you can dismiss the parked question and Orbit tears the session down cleanly. Orbit also distinguishes a real agent question from a documentation example that merely looks like one, so you only respond when a response is actually needed.
Recovery before running
Section titled “Recovery before running”Before a prompt is dequeued, Orbit guards against a dirty working tree. It scans git diff --check, runs a guarded pre-prompt pull and stash, and if it hits a conflict it pauses that project’s queue with a banner naming the project and the affected files until you re-scan. This keeps a half-finished local state from colliding with a fresh prompt.