FAQ
Quick answers to the questions that come up most. For error messages, see Troubleshooting instead.
Why isn’t Orchard on the Mac App Store?
App Store sandbox rules don’t allow the deep system access Orchard needs: Full Disk Access for reading Mail and Messages, and broad permission to control apps like Mail, Messages, Notes, Music, and Shortcuts on your behalf. Sandboxed apps can’t request either. Orchard ships instead as a notarized DMG with automatic updates built in; see Installation.
Does my data leave my Mac?
No. The AI client talks to the orchard CLI or orchard mcp, which talks directly to Orchard.app running on your Mac: no web server, no open network ports, nothing relayed off your machine. The one nuance: Weather and Maps queries use Apple’s own weather and location services, standard system behavior rather than something Orchard adds. What happens to data on the AI client’s own side (e.g., how Claude or ChatGPT handle the conversation) is governed by that client’s own policies, not Orchard’s. See Privacy Architecture for the full picture.
Which AI clients are supported?
Two channels:
- Agent Skills: Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, and any other client that supports the Agent Skills convention (a
.skillpackage or the shared~/.agents/skills/directory). This is the recommended path; see Connect Claude Code, Connect Claude Desktop, and Codex & Other Agents. - MCP: any client that speaks the Model Context Protocol, such as Cursor, Claude Desktop, or Codex, via
orchard mcprunning locally on your Mac. See Connect via MCP.
Skill vs MCP, which should I use?
Use the Skill if your client supports it. It ships with richer usage guidance (a full command reference the agent reads alongside the tools themselves), so the agent tends to pick the right tool and flags on the first try. MCP is the compatibility channel: use it for clients that don’t support Agent Skills, whether that’s Cursor or any other generic MCP client. Both reach the same 52 tools through the same Orchard.app; the difference is only in how the client discovers and is instructed to use them.
How do device limits work?
Free plans allow 1 device; Pro plans allow 3. “Device” means one instance of Orchard signed in, not one AI client: you can point Claude Code, Cursor, and Claude Desktop at the same signed-in Orchard on one Mac and it still counts as one device. If you try to sign in on a device beyond your limit, Orchard shows a “Device Limit Reached” dialog; manage or remove devices from the Dashboard on the website. See Account & Devices.
How do I update Orchard?
Orchard checks for updates automatically, or you can trigger a check manually from More Options > Check for Updates. If you have the CLI symlink installed, it needs no separate update: it always points at the binary inside the current Orchard.app bundle, so an app update carries it along automatically.
Do I need to keep Orchard running?
Yes, for anything that actually touches an Apple app. Every tool call, from any channel, routes through the running Orchard.app to do the work, and scheduled email/message sends specifically depend on the app staying open until the scheduled time. The one partial exception is orchard mcp: if Orchard.app isn’t running when a client tries to call a tool, it attempts to launch it automatically and waits up to 10 seconds before giving up.