AI employee commands

Terminal commands for managing AI employees, plus commands employees use during a shift.

Syntax · Options · ExamplesEnglish

There are two groups of commands

Use operator commands (list · get · start · stop · shift-now · instruct · resolve · inbox · journal) in your own terminal. Only an AI employee on a shift can use shift commands (status · request · reply · action · metric). They are rejected if you run them yourself.

A common workflow

list → get → start → instruct → inbox · resolve → journal

Terminal

orke employee list
orke employee get --slug EMPLOYEE_SLUG --json
orke employee start --slug EMPLOYEE_SLUG --json
orke employee instruct --slug EMPLOYEE_SLUG --text "Focus on blog posts this week" --wake true --json
orke employee inbox --slug EMPLOYEE_SLUG --json
orke employee resolve --slug EMPLOYEE_SLUG --id REQUEST_ID --json
orke employee journal --slug EMPLOYEE_SLUG --limit 3 --json

Replace EMPLOYEE_SLUG with the actual slug returned by orke employee list, and REQUEST_ID with an actual id from get or inbox. Use the app to create employees, hold meetings, configure shifts, edit memory, and delete employees. AI employee guide →

Command list

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14 commands · Select one to open its details.

Operator commands · 9

Run these in a terminal on the same computer as the running orke app. They follow the same rules as the buttons in the app.

orke employee list

List AI employees, their status, and pending-request counts.

↗orke employee get

Read one employee’s status, settings, today’s recorded post, comment, and message counts, pending requests, and goals.

↗orke employee start

Enable work. The first shift starts immediately.

↗orke employee stop

Stop work. If a shift is running, interrupt it.

↗orke employee shift-now

Skip the schedule and start a shift immediately.

↗orke employee instruct

Send an instruction. The next shift reads and answers it.

↗orke employee resolve

Handle a pending request with “Done,” “Won’t do,” or “Give my opinion.”

↗orke employee inbox

Read recent inbox entries (oldest first).

↗orke employee journal

Read recent shifts and their work (newest first).

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Shift commands · 5

An AI employee uses these commands to report to orke during a shift. Read them to understand what an employee can do.

orke employee status

Let an employee on a shift check pending requests and unanswered instructions or feedback.

↗orke employee request

Request something only a person can do. Only one request may be pending.

↗orke employee reply

Reply to a person’s instruction or feedback.

↗orke employee action

Record published posts, comments, or messages.

↗orke employee metric

Record the current value of one metric in the goals document.

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Common errors

Error code	Meaning and next action
`employee_not_found`	No employee has that slug. Check the slug with `orke employee list`.
`employee_start_refused`	Work cannot start. Fix the reported reason, such as missing goals, invalid settings, or the working AI’s sign-in, then run start again.
`employee_not_running`	Work is not enabled. Use shift-now and `instruct --wake true` after start.
`employee_instruction_empty` · `employee_instruction_too_long`	The instruction is empty or exceeds 4,000 characters.
`employee_request_not_pending`	The request is already handled or does not exist. Check pending requests with inbox.
`employee_state_write_failed`	Work stopped, but its state could not be saved. Check disk space and folder permissions.
`employee_save_failed`	The instruction or request resolution could not be saved. Check disk space and folder permissions, then send it again.
`employee_binding_required`	A shift command was run outside a shift. Use operator commands yourself.
`employee_binding_invalid`	The shift credential is invalid. That shift may already have ended. Use shift commands only within their own shift.
`instruction_not_found`	The instruction specified in reply’s `--to` does not exist. Use `orke employee status` to check unanswered instructions.
`request_pending`	request was rejected because another request is already pending. Only one request can be pending, so the employee continues working, then combines what it needs into a single request after the pending one is handled. Use resolve to handle the pending request.
`control_forbidden`	An AI employee on a shift called an operator command or another orke command. Employees may use only shift commands.
`control_usage`	An option name, format, or range is invalid (for example, `--limit 0`). The exit code is 2.

Other employee command errors use exit code 4. Output, errors, and common options →