---
title: Running without Orca
description: git worktree, tmux and the system crontab — the second implementation that keeps the runner seam honest.
---

```yaml
connectors:
  runner: local
  local:
    worktreeRoot: ../.ak-worktrees
    tmuxBin: tmux
    cronMarker: '# ak-harness'
```

That is the whole switch. `tick` creates a git worktree under `worktreeRoot`, opens a tmux session, sends the
brief, and records the same dispatch record it would have recorded with Orca. `deliver` reads the same files.

## What you need

- `git` with worktree support (any modern version);
- `tmux` on `PATH`;
- a user crontab, if you want `loop install` to schedule the stages.

No app, no daemon, no runtime to keep alive.

## What changes

| | `orca` | `local` |
|---|---|---|
| Worktrees | Orca-managed workspaces | `git worktree add` under `worktreeRoot` |
| Terminals | Orca panes, with hibernation | tmux windows |
| Schedule | Orca automations | crontab lines carrying `cronMarker` |
| Usage reporting | `orca account list` per provider | Whatever each CLI itself reports |

The last row is the one to plan for: without Orca's aggregated usage, `models.routing.mode: catalog` and the
usage-balanced policy have less to work with. Tiers and failover still work; "most remaining window first" is
only as good as what the provider CLI will tell you.

## Two details, both learned from a bug

**The brief is typed, then submitted.** `send` writes the literal text and presses Enter afterwards. Sending
them together means any newline inside a brief submits it early — and a worker that received the first third of
its instructions behaves worse than one that received none.

**Only marked crontab lines are touched.** `schedule` reconciles the lines carrying `connectors.local.cronMarker`
and leaves every other line exactly as it was. Your backups, your renewals, your cron from three jobs ago: the
harness does not own them, so it does not rewrite them.

## Why this exists at all

An interface with one implementation is a guess about what varies. The local runner is the second
implementation that makes `RunnerConnector` a real seam rather than a description of Orca — and the reason the
tracker and SCM seams are documented as *not* proven yet.