From skill or spec to agent

What this is

Orca is the agent that plans and provisions other agents. You give it what you have. It reads what your org already has, proposes a plan, and stops. Nothing is built or assigned until you approve the plan.

Orca hands each piece to the builder for that kind of thing: the Connection Builder, the Function Builder, the Widget Builder and the Script Builder. Orca creates the agent itself and attaches everything to it.

Orca is in the workspace rail on the left. Only admins see it.

What each starting point becomes

Skills become prompt text first

A skill is instructions for a model. In Mindset that is the agent's prompt, so most skills become prompt text and nothing else. The prompt has five fields: purpose, personality, background, policy rules and output formatting.

Orca proposes a script only when the skill holds an instruction the agent must not be able to skip: wait for an answer, or don't move on until something is true. Only that stretch of the skill becomes a script. The rest stays in the prompt.

Each prompt field holds about 2,000 characters. A long skill gets condensed to fit, and Orca tells you in its summary what it shortened.

What doesn't come across

Orca lists what it could not convert as part of the plan, in plain words, and repeats the list when it finishes. The usual items are:

• A bundled script, program or data file. Nothing in Mindset runs arbitrary code.
• A step that reads files on someone's computer.
• A system your org has no connection to yet.
• A part that logs into a website and clicks through its screens. There is no operation to make from it. Ask whoever owns that system whether there is an API behind the screens.

MCP servers

An MCP server becomes a connection. Its tools arrive switched off, and you enable the ones you want. Mindset marks each tool read or write from the hints the server publishes. A tool with no clear hint is treated as a write, and an admin can change the marking. See Connect a system.

How to do it

The running example is the invoice exceptions skill that someone in finance already wrote.

1. Open Orca and choose Turn a Claude skill into an agent, or paste straight into the message box.
2. Paste the skill in. All of it. There is no file upload for skills, so paste the text.
3. Read the brief. Orca restates what it read: the agent's purpose, its tasks, the systems it touches, the screens it shows, the procedure it must follow, and what it could not convert. Correct anything it got wrong.
4. Wait while it takes an inventory. It lists your existing agents, connections, functions and widgets so it can propose reusing one instead of building a second.
5. Edit the plan card, as described below.
6. Press Approve plan. Orca builds the rows marked Build it, in dependency order: connections, then functions and widgets, then the agent, then its script.

Press Don't build this to stop. Nothing is built.

The plan card

The card is titled Provisioning plan: approval required. Each row is one thing Orca proposes, with these columns:

For the invoice exceptions skill, expect rows like these:

What to check before you approve

A row builds something you already have

Orca searches before it proposes a build, but it matches on names and descriptions. A connection named after a project (Q3 spend review) that reaches your finance system can be missed.

1. Open Connections in another tab.
2. Ignore the names. Look at what each connection reaches: the host for an HTTP API, the server for an MCP server.
3. If one reaches the same system as a Build it row, switch the row to Use existing and enter that connection's name.
4. Do the same in Functions.

A duplicate connection means two credentials to rotate and two sets of operations to keep in step. Build a new one anyway when the existing one points at a sandbox, uses a credential for a different account, or belongs to a team that doesn't expect your agent to use it.

The writes are where you expect

The invoice agent should change exactly one thing: it registers a supplier query. Everything else is a read. If the plan includes a write you didn't ask for, switch that row off and ask Orca why it was there.

A function isn't making a judgment

A function gives the same answer for the same input. Comparing an invoice to a purchase order qualifies. Deciding whether a difference is acceptable under the contract does not, and belongs with the agent. If a function's name contains "assess" or "decide", ask what it does.

The script is short

The script should cover only the part that must happen in order. If every sentence of the skill became a phase, tell Orca to move the behavior back into the prompt.

What you get

Orca makes the new agent's first configuration active, so it can run. It leaves the agent unavailable to people until you switch it on, apart from any surface its own wiring needs (another agent handing it work, or a schedule). See Publish and share an agent.

Open the agent to see its tabs: Overview, Chat, Script, Triggering, Resources, System Prompt, Settings, Acceptance tests, Versions & Availability and Embed.

The Agent Builder is docked on the left of every tab. To change something, tell it there. On an agent that is already running, its edits are saved as a new version and wait for you to activate them. See What saving actually does.

What can go wrong

A connection has no operations. A connection can save cleanly and still offer nothing. Open it and check its Tools or Operations tab before you rely on it.

A credential is missing. Builders ask for credentials in a secure form the model never sees. If you skipped that step, finish it on the connection. See Connect a system.

The plan is one enormous agent. A long skill is often two or three jobs. Tell Orca to split it, and say so if the split cuts through something that belongs together.

You approved a plan you now regret. Nothing is destroyed. Change what it built, or switch the agent off on Versions & Availability and run Orca again with a better brief.

You're done when

• The agent exists and you can open it.
• You can name every connection, function and operation in the plan, and say why each one is there.
• You checked the Connections list yourself before approving.
• You read the list of what could not be converted.