Operating a Core

The machine verbs operate this machine's Core. They do not take --core — the Core they mean is the one on the box you are typing on. (Driving Cores near or far is the client commands.)

Install and activate

Installing is not activating.

Verb	What it does
`actana install`	Fetch a release, verify the checksum, unpack, and start a Core.
`actana place`	Put an extracted bundle here and link the launcher, then stop. Nothing is started, no identity is minted. This is what `install.sh` runs.
`actana setup`	Activate from a placed bundle — or fetch one when there is none. Writes the auto-start unit, starts the daemon, registers this Core with this machine's `actana`.

Details: Install Core and Actana Setup.

Day-to-day

actana status
actana logs -f
actana start
actana stop
actana restart

status prints the daemon's health, versions, endpoint, and Harness availability — and exits non-zero when the Core is not healthy, so it works as a health check in scripts. logs takes -f / --follow and -n / --lines <n>; on Linux it reads the journal, on macOS it tails ~/Library/Logs/Actana/core.log. start, stop and restart drive systemd or launchctl for you.

Pairing lifecycle — mint, list, revoke — is on Create a Pairing Code:

actana pair new
actana pair ls
actana pair revoke <target>

actana pair is the Core end; actana core pair is the client end.

Update

actana update

update asks for the newest release, verifies the tarball against SHA256SUMS, installs it beside the running one, and repoints current before restarting. Pairing stays intact. Pin with actana update --version x.y.z. A beta machine is left alone by a bare update — see Installing a Beta. Once a day status names a newer release if one exists; nothing downloads until you type update. ACTANA_UPDATE_CHECK=0 turns the check off.

Rotate identity

actana token regenerate

Mints a fresh CA, certificates and bearer secret, then restarts the daemon — every paired client stops working and must pair again. There is no actana token that reprints a credential. The full re-pairing choreography, including the Panel's remove-first step: Rotate the CA.

Install a Harness later

actana harnesses install opencode

The id is the Harness name or its command (claude-code and claude both work). After an install the Core re-probes immediately, so a paired Panel sees the new Harness without a restart. See Harnesses.

Uninstall

actana uninstall              # keep sessions and credentials
actana uninstall --purge-data # also delete those; cannot be undone

Without --purge-data, reinstalling picks up where you left off with the same Panel still paired. Both forms ask for confirmation; pass --yes in a script.

Inside the Core image

The image is the install, so lifecycle verbs refuse and print the Docker command that does the same job:

Verb	On the host
`setup`	set `ACTANA_PUBLIC_HOST`, then `docker compose up -d`
`start` / `stop` / `restart`	`docker compose up -d` / `stop` / `restart`
`update`	`docker compose pull && docker compose up -d`
`logs`	`docker compose logs -f core`
`uninstall`	`docker compose down` (`-v` also deletes sessions and pairing)

These still work inside the container: status, pair, token regenerate (then docker compose restart so the daemon loads the new material), harnesses. The image reads ACTANA_PUBLIC_HOST (required, never guessed), ACTANA_PORT, and ACTANA_LABEL. Client commands are never refused in the image.