What is a Workspace in ORCA Opti?

In one sentence: A Workspace in ORCA Opti is a shared space that groups related chats and scheduled tasks under one set of instructions, knowledge and tools, so an AI teammate does a role consistently for everyone who can use it.

Workspaces are part of Opti Assist, the conversational and working surface of the ORCA Opti platform. They turn AI from a one-off chat into a persistent, governed teammate that keeps its purpose across many conversations.

Why a Workspace, not just a chat

A normal AI chat forgets who it is every time you open it. You re-explain the context, re-attach the documents and re-state the rules. A Workspace is configured once: its instructions, knowledge, tools, guardrails and access travel with it, so it behaves the same way every time, for everyone allowed in.

That is the difference between "an AI chat" and "a role your organisation staffs with AI", such as a Chief of Staff, a Customer Support lead or a People and Culture assistant.

What a Workspace holds

Each Workspace brings several things together under one roof:

• Instructions. How it should behave, and what it must never do.
• Knowledge. The Knowledge Packs it can read from, including packs inherited from any Pearls attached to it.
• Tools. The actions and connections it is allowed to use.
• Context. Folders, URLs and files captured by reference, so nothing is uploaded or copied into ORCA.
• Tasks. Scheduled work it runs on its own, each with an approval mode (approval is required by default), a frequency, an assignee and a priority.
• AI Guardian. Protection applied to this Workspace specifically, not only globally.
• Access. Who can use it, and who can edit it.

You can run a Workspace as an individual space (a shared setup, but private chats and memory for each person) or a communal team room (shared chats, memory and files for everyone with access).

How to set up a Workspace

1. Create it. In Build & Run, open Workspaces and create a new one. Give it a name, a role and standing instructions.
2. Add knowledge and tools. Attach the Knowledge Packs and tools it should use. Fewer, more relevant packs beat many.
3. Set guardrails and access. Apply an AI Guardian policy and choose who can use versus edit it.
4. Add scheduled tasks. Optionally set recurring work, with an approval mode so nothing runs unchecked.
5. Test as a draft. Try the draft version safely before it goes live.
6. Publish. Publish the version, then pin it for quick launch so the team can open it from Ask Opti.

Workspaces keep a draft and a published version with history, so you can iterate safely, and you can require an approver before anything goes live.

Workspaces managed by ORCA

Some Workspaces are managed by ORCA: their core instructions are maintained centrally so they keep working as the platform evolves. Everything you add to them (your tools, knowledge, Pearls, name, greeting and scheduling) is preserved when ORCA updates the underlying instructions.

What plan do Workspaces need?

Workspaces are part of Opti Assist, so you need an Opti Assist plan or higher.

Workspace, Pearl or Agent?

• A Workspace is where an AI teammate does a role, with its own instructions, knowledge, tools and schedule.
• A Pearl is a reusable AI specialist you attach for a single subject. See What is a Pearl in ORCA Opti?
• An Agent is a task runner that carries out a specific job on a manual or scheduled trigger.

A Workspace can draw on Pearls and Agents, so a role can call on the right specialist or task runner when it needs one.