Everything about Orbit, answered.

Orbit is a free Claude Desktop extension that turns Claude into a lifecycle marketing operating system — a capability we call Orbit Intelligence. It bundles 63 specialist lifecycle marketing skills and 91 MCP tools, including native Braze integration. Marketers use it to design lifecycle programs, plan messages across channels, build production-ready emails, and operate their Braze workspace directly from Claude. Orbit Intelligence walks you through getting the right inputs before a tool runs, cites the specific practitioner guides that informed each answer, and closes every substantive response with a concrete next action.

Orbit is built by Justin Williames, a lifecycle marketer with a decade of CRM experience leading programs at consumer-scale companies. It is built by one person from real lifecycle work, not by a team guessing what marketers need.

Lifecycle marketers, CRM managers, retention teams, and marketing operations teams. It is especially useful for Braze users, but the non-Braze skills (message planning, email production, lifecycle diagrams, brand kits) work with any CRM or ESP.

Orbit skills are structured methodologies, not string templates. Each skill gives Claude a step-by-step framework for a specific lifecycle discipline: discovery, segmentation, deliverability, experiment design, and more. Tools let Claude take action, such as building email HTML, reading Braze data, generating lifecycle diagrams, and exporting documentation. Together, skills and tools turn Claude into a lifecycle team rather than a chatbot.

Orbit is free for everyone. The MCP server, the web tools, the guides — all free. Create a free account to get the download portal so future versions land automatically. Donations on /support are voluntary and decoupled from access.

No. Everything Orbit ships is free. There's no upgrade tier, no seat licensing, no expiry. If Orbit earns its keep and you want to support development, /support has a pay-what-you-want slider — but donating doesn't change what you have access to.

Visit /support and pick what Orbit's worth to you. One-time, no subscription. Donations fund hosting, infrastructure, and the time to keep shipping new skills, MCP tools, and practitioner guides.

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard created by Anthropic that lets Claude use external tools and data sources. Think of it as a plugin system, but instead of simple add-ons, MCP extensions can give Claude entirely new capabilities.

Orbit adds two things. Skills teach Claude how to think about lifecycle marketing problems (segmentation, retention, experiment design, deliverability, and more). Tools let Claude take action (generate email HTML, read Braze data, create lifecycle diagrams, export documentation, validate markup). Skills and tools work together inside any Claude conversation.

Orbit runs inside Claude Desktop on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Install by double-clicking the .mcpb file and restart Claude Desktop.

No. Orbit is designed for marketers. You ask Claude questions in plain English. Orbit's skills and tools activate automatically based on what you are trying to do.

Yes. Orbit has native Braze integration. Connect your API key and Claude can audit your workspace, read Canvases and campaigns, pull performance data over any time range, validate events and attributes, sync templates and Content Blocks, and analyse segments. Orbit reads your actual Braze data before it builds or recommends anything.

Instance audit (naming issues, stale content, duplicates), Canvas reader (import a Canvas as an editable program), performance data (campaigns, Canvases, segments over any date range), data validation (check events and attributes exist), template sync (publish templates and Content Blocks with version tracking), and segment analysis (sizes, growth, tracking config).

Your API key is stored locally on your machine, used by Claude Desktop to make requests on your behalf. Orbit does not transmit your key to any third-party service. See the Privacy page for specifics.

The non-Braze skills (strategy, message planning, email production, brand enforcement, lifecycle diagrams) work with any CRM or ESP. The Braze-specific tools require a Braze API key. Support for Iterable, HubSpot, and other platforms is on the roadmap.

Eight browser-based tools available at yourorbit.team/apps with no sign-up: Orbit Namer (Braze naming convention generator), Email Size Checker (Gmail clipping audit), Braze Liquid Syntax Generator, Push Notification Preview (iOS/Android/Web), Statistical Significance Calculator (A/B/n z-test), IP Warm-Up Planner, Percentage Change Calculator, and AI Slop Detector. Each is a small taste of a capability fully integrated inside Orbit for Claude.

The web apps are standalone versions of capabilities that are fully integrated inside Orbit. For example, the web-app Namer generates a single name. Inside Orbit for Claude, the same convention is applied automatically on every asset Claude builds across your whole Braze instance.

No. The web apps run entirely in your browser. Inputs and outputs never leave your device. No account, no login, no analytics beyond basic page views.

Download the .mcpb file from yourorbit.team/download. Double-click the file and Claude Desktop installs the extension automatically. Restart Claude Desktop. The extension will be available immediately. Optional: add your Braze API key in the extension settings for Braze integration.

.mcpb stands for MCP Bundle. It is the package format Claude Desktop uses for MCP extensions. You install it by double-clicking, the same way you install a browser extension.

Same three steps as installing. Download the latest .mcpb from yourorbit.team/download, double-click the file, and Claude Desktop replaces the old version in place. You do not need to uninstall the previous version first — Claude handles the upgrade automatically. Restart Claude Desktop once the install completes to load the new skills and tools.

Remove the Orbit extension from Claude Desktop's extension settings. No system-wide cleanup is required. Note: you do NOT need to uninstall before updating — updating is automatic when you double-click a newer .mcpb file.

Orbit runs locally inside Claude Desktop. The only external requests are (a) to your Braze workspace if you connect your API key, and (b) to Claude itself when you chat. No Orbit-operated servers see your prompts or data.

No. Orbit replaces the repetitive work that slows lifecycle marketers down: building emails, writing Liquid, looking up Braze docs, generating diagrams, drafting briefs, running significance tests. The strategic judgement stays with you. Orbit is the team that helps you scale, not the marketer itself.

Orbit is lifecycle-specific. It will not help with generic prompt writing, content marketing, SEO, social media strategy, or paid acquisition. It is also not a replacement for your ESP. It works alongside Braze, not instead of it.

Orbit drafts campaigns, message plans, email HTML, and lifecycle programs based on the context you provide. You review, edit, and ship. The workflow is human-in-the-loop by design: Orbit accelerates, you approve.

Restart Claude Desktop. If it is still missing, open Settings, Extensions, and confirm Orbit is enabled. If the file did not install cleanly, re-download the .mcpb and double-click again.

Check that your API key has the right endpoints enabled (campaigns.list, canvas.list, users.export.id, etc.) and that the rest endpoint matches your Braze instance's region (e.g. rest.iad-01.braze.com). Orbit will surface the specific error from Braze in the chat.

Visit the Contact page. Include what you were trying to do, what you expected, and what happened instead. Screenshots help. Bug reports drive Orbit's roadmap.