---
title: "Core"
url: "https://control.actana.ai/docs/core"
description: "The stateful half of the product: the daemon that owns projects, sessions, SQLite, and PTYs on its machine."
updated: 2026-09-01T09:03:13+00:00
---

A **Core** is a machine running the Actana Control daemon: the stateful half of the product. It hosts projects, tasks, and sessions; owns its SQLite, PTYs, and files; and spawns [Harness](/docs/core/harnesses) CLIs against repos that never leave it. One Panel drives zero or more Cores, and every client — Panel, [CLI](/docs/cli), [SDK](/docs/reference/sdk) — reaches a Core the same way, over the [core link](/docs/architecture/core-link).

```mermaid
flowchart LR
  P[Panel] -->|core link| C[Core daemon]
  CLI[actana CLI] -->|core link| C
  C --> DB[(SQLite)]
  C --> PTY[PTYs]
  PTY --> H[Harness CLI]
  H --> R[repo on this machine]
```

Becoming a Core is [install](/docs/install/install-core) plus [setup](/docs/install/actana-setup); being one is a daemon supervised by systemd or launchd, listening on `8443`, that the Panel dials — never the reverse.

## In this section

- [Operating a Core](/docs/core/operating) — the machine verbs: status, logs, start/stop, update, rotate identity, uninstall — and their Docker equivalents in a container.
- [Harnesses](/docs/core/harnesses) — the vendor CLIs a Core can run, and how they get installed under the Core's user.

## See also

- [Concepts](/docs/introduction/concepts) — Core, Task, Session, and the rest of the vocabulary.
- [Create a Pairing Code](/docs/pairing/create-a-pairing-code) — enroll clients on this Core.
- [Environment Variables](/docs/reference/environment-variables) — `ACTANA_PUBLIC_HOST`, `ACTANA_HOME`, the metal layout.