Orbs

Orbs are remote machines where Amp agents work without using your computer. Every orb thread gets a fresh, isolated environment with your code, plugins, development tools, and the context of the thread that created it.

See What Are Orbs? and Orbs, Explained for overviews of what orbs are and how they can change how you build, and Putting an Agent in an Orb to learn how to prepare your codebase for orbs.

Why Use an Orb?

An agent in an orb keeps working while your laptop is closed. The orb takes up nothing on your machine, so you can start several independent tasks at once and let each one run for as long as it needs.

You also do not have to manage the machine. When the agent is done, the orb goes to sleep, and a sleeping orb costs nothing, even if it sleeps for weeks. When you send another prompt, the orb wakes up with your conversation, files, and services still in place.

That also changes what you can ask for. The agent has a whole machine to itself, so it can install dependencies, run your app, spawn browsers, and test its work end to end. Tell it to prove that its changes work before you look at them. When the work is ready, the thread contains the conversation, the code changes, the running services, and the proof, which is everything you need to review the result.

Review Changes and Browse Files

Open the thread’s changes view to review the diff. You can also browse and open any file in the orb without downloading the repository first.

Use the Terminal

Open the Terminal pane to get a shell inside the orb. The terminal and the agent use the same filesystem and working copy, so changes made in either place are immediately visible in the other. Use it to inspect processes, change local configuration, install a dependency, or run a command alongside the agent.

The terminal runs in a shared tmux session. Amp can inspect its output and work with long-running commands in the same session.

Sync Changes to Your Computer

Use amp sync to mirror an orb thread’s changes into your local checkout while the agent keeps working remotely. Pass a thread URL or ID:

amp sync <thread>

Start an Orb From the CLI

Use amp -ox to start an execute-mode thread in an orb without leaving your terminal:

amp -ox "Investigate why the latest CI run on main failed"

Use --orb-size when the task needs a different amount of compute from the project default:

amp -ox "Run the performance test matrix" --orb-size a1.large

See Sizes & Costs for the available sizes.

Start an Orb From the TUI

Open the command palette with Ctrl+O and select thread: new in orb. To choose the project first, select project: select. Use project: create if the repository does not have an Amp project yet.

Next Steps

Read Getting Started to create your first orb. Then customize the environment for your repository or share a running service with Portals.