Runs

You start a run to carry out one workflow for one project, towards one goal. While it works, you can follow it, send its agent a message and pause it, and it picks up again after a restart. Orbital keeps each run’s full history.

Each step runs on the harness and model that its role, its model settings or the run chose, so one run can use several harnesses and models. Harnesses and models gives the order.

A run page: the selected step in the middle, the run's facts and steps on the right.

Standings

Each run has one standing at a time. The runs list, the run page and the MCP tools use the same names. The one exception: the MCP tools report a run at a gate as Paused.

Standing	Meaning
Created	Recorded but not started.
Queued	Waiting for a free run slot in the queue.
Running	A step is working.
Question	The agent asked you something and waits for the answer.
Waiting	The run waits for time or at a human gate. A timed wait shows “Wakes in” and the time left. A run at a gate shows “Waiting:” and the gate’s label, such as “Waiting: The pull request is waiting for review or merge”. The Status filter calls it At a gate. It carries on by itself.
Paused	Nothing moves until you act. A run you paused shows “Paused”. A run that stopped by itself shows “Waiting on you”. It stops by itself when a step fails and the workflow has no route for the failure, when the harness is missing or out of quota, when a step reaches its visit limit, or when Orbital cannot read the workflow. A paused run holds no run slot.
Succeeded	It reached a terminal step that ends in success.
Failed	It reached a terminal step that ends in failure, or spent the workflow’s max_visits.
Aborted	Someone aborted it.

The phase field

The HTTP run listing and the MCP list_runs and get_run tools return a phase field beside the standing. The phase says which part of a step the run is in. Use the standing to decide what to do. Use the phase when you need the finer detail.

Phase	Meaning	Standing
Created	Recorded but not started.	Created
Queued	Waiting for a free run slot.	Queued
Entering	Starting a step.	Running, Question or Waiting
Executing	A step is working.	Running, Question or Waiting
Selecting	Choosing the next step from the edges.	Running, Question or Waiting
AwaitingOperator	At a human gate, or stopped by itself.	Waiting at a gate, or Paused (“Waiting on you”)
Interrupted	You paused it.	Paused
Ended	Reached a terminal step or was aborted.	Succeeded, Failed or Aborted, from the run’s outcome

The MCP tools report a run at a gate with the standing Paused. Its phase is AwaitingOperator, as for a run that stopped by itself. For a run at a gate, the HTTP listing also returns waitingOn, the gate’s label.

Read the result

A run ends at a terminal step. The Session tab then shows “Run ended: success”. A run that failed or was aborted shows “Run ended: failed” or “Run ended: aborted” as an alert.

What the run delivered depends on its workflow:

Workflow	Where the result is
Answers or writes, such as explain-repo or a research report	The agent’s reply. It is the last message in the Session tab, above “Run ended”. The Context tab keeps each step’s reply as response.<step>, and the latest one as last_response.
Delivers code, through a worktree and a pull request	The dock’s Pull requests section lists its pull requests. The Changes tab shows the branch’s changes.

A code run's pull requests, listed in the dock.

Titles

Orbital titles a run the moment you start it. It uses a ticket’s identifier and title, a link’s short form, or the first line of the goal. A small model then writes a better title from the ticket and from the first step’s work.

To rename a run, choose its title in the header. Orbital never replaces a title you gave.

Quick reference

You want	Where to look
Whether a run needs you	Its standing, in the runs list or on the run page
Finer detail for a script or an agent	The phase field from the HTTP run listing or the MCP tools
A run’s answer	The last message in the Session tab, or response.<step> in the Context tab
A run’s pull requests	The dock’s Pull requests section, and the Changes tab
A new title	The run’s title in the header

Related

• Start a run: give a project a goal and a workflow.
• Watch a run: find runs and read the run page.
• Message a run: steer the agent or answer its question.
• Pause, stop or resolve a run: every control and what it does.
• The run queue: how many runs work at once, and in what order.