Same CLI, many projects — name seats and talk across projects

Plain example: two windows of the same agent, one per project, talking like teammates — not technical jargon.

Picture this (no jargon)#

You have two products open: a shop and a warehouse. Both windows run the same agent (say OpenCode). To you they look like two chats. To Orchemax they need names, or they blur into one anonymous “OpenCode”.

You open them like this:

orch opencode --name shop --project apps/shop
orch opencode --name warehouse --project apps/warehouse

Think of --name as the sticky note on the monitor: “this chat is the shop”, “this chat is the warehouse”. Same program, different desks.

What you say (as a human)#

You do not type tool names. You talk like you would to two people:

Shop and warehouse are both open. The shared shipping label format changed — shop prints the new labels; warehouse checks it can still scan them. If something breaks, tell the other desk. Don’t guess for them.

Each Chair does its own side, then tells the other project what changed or what failed. That “tell” is Orchemax’s bus: a short note to the other desk, not a Slack side-chat and not “spawn a fake warehouse worker inside the shop”.

When someone is stuck#

If warehouse cannot decide without shop’s answer (“which barcode field is canonical?”), it asks and waits — like raising a hand — instead of inventing an answer. You (or the shop Chair) answer; then work continues.

Why the name matters#

Without --name, three OpenCode windows all look like “opencode”. A message aimed only at “opencode” may land on the wrong window — like calling “hey you” in a room of three people with the same job title.

--project pins the chat to the right folder when you’re not sure of the directory. Rename later with orch session rename if the sticky note is wrong.

After a shared change (still human)#

  1. Take a turn on the shared file (lock — so two desks don’t overwrite each other).
  2. Make the change.
  3. Release the turn.
  4. Ping the other desk: “shipping label field X is now Y — please retest.”

They read their inbox, adapt their product, and reply if something’s missing.