ORBIS

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Getting started with ORBIS ​

This tutorial takes you from downloading ORBIS to a working voice companion that reminds you, hands work to an agent, and responds to an external ping. By the end you'll have heard each of ORBIS's signature behaviours.

You'll need: an Apple-Silicon Mac (M1 or later) on a recent macOS. That's it — ORBIS is a regular Mac app you download and open; there's nothing to build or clone.

1. Download and install ​

  1. Go to orbis.protolabs.studio/download and download the latest .dmg.
  2. Open the downloaded file and drag ORBIS into your Applications folder.
  3. Open ORBIS from Applications. It's signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens cleanly — no right-click-to-open or Gatekeeper workarounds.

On first launch ORBIS asks for microphone access — grant it. (If the orb can't hear you later, toggle ORBIS on under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone.) A short first-run setup walks you through naming it, picking a voice, choosing your speech (on-device or cloud), and pointing it at a language model. When you finish, the orb appears — that's your companion, ready.

ORBIS needs a language model to think. The setup helps you connect one — a cloud provider with your own key, or a local model. You can change it any time from Settings → Brain, or see Configure the LLM.

2. Have a conversation ​

Double-click the orb to start listening, and just talk: "Hey, what can you do?" It answers in voice. That's the baseline — speech in, speech out.

3. Set a reminder (it speaks on its own) ​

Say:

"Remind me in one minute to stretch."

It confirms ("I'll remind you in a minute"). Now keep chatting about anything. About a minute later, at a natural pause, the orb brings the reminder up on its own — phrased naturally, not read verbatim. Then ask:

"What did you just remind me about?"

It answers from memory — the proactive line is part of the conversation.

4. Hand work to an agent ​

ORBIS ships with no delegates — you add the agents you want it to hand work to. Configure one first (see Add a delegate), then ask for it by name:

"Ask my agent to do X and let me know."

It acknowledges right away and keeps talking with you. When the agent finishes, the orb speaks the result at the next pause, attributed to the agent. You didn't wait.

5. Ping it from outside (optional — for the terminal-inclined) ​

Anything on your machine can make the orb speak. ORBIS serves a small local API; find its port and send a message:

bash
PORT=$(lsof -nP -iTCP -sTCP:LISTEN | grep -i orbis | grep -oE '127.0.0.1:[0-9]+' | head -1 | cut -d: -f2)
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:$PORT/api/say \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"text": "your build just went green", "urgency": "normal"}'

The orb voices it at the next pause. Try "urgency": "urgent" to interrupt immediately.

Where to go next ​

  • Do more → the How-to guides — configure the LLM, add a delegate, manage reminders, customize your orb.
  • Tune it → the Reference — every config and settings knob.
  • Understand it → How ORBIS works.