Actana Control

Actana Setup

actana setup is the command that turns a placed bundle into a running Core. install.sh (and actana place) stop before this. Setup prints no pairing credential — enroll a client later with actana pair new.

What it does

  • Generates the mTLS material and persists it to ~/.config/actana/material.json.
  • Writes the auto-start service: systemd user unit ~/.config/systemd/user/actana-core.service on Linux, or LaunchAgent ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.actana.core.plist on macOS.
  • On Linux, offers to enable lingering so the daemon survives logout.
  • Offers to install any harness CLI (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor CLI, OpenCode) that is not already on the machine, using each vendor's own installer.
  • Registers and starts the service, then waits for the port to answer.
  • Registers this Core with this machine's own actana, so actana core ls lists it and it is what actana session start means here by default.

Re-running setup is safe: it upgrades in place, keeps this Core's identity, and leaves exactly one unit. Paired clients stay paired. It re-signs the server certificate only when --public-host changed.

--public-host and --port

--public-host is the address the Panel dials. It goes into the server certificate's SAN and into the pairing endpoint. It defaults to the machine's first routable IPv4 — set it explicitly if the machine is behind NAT or reached by DNS name.

--port is the port the daemon listens on (default 8443). --host is the bind address (default 0.0.0.0). --label is the alias shown in the Panel (default: the hostname).

Harness flags and --yes

Flag Meaning
--with-<harness> Install this harness CLI without asking. Repeatable. Ids or commands: --with-claude-code, --with-claude, --with-codex, --with-cursor-cli, --with-opencode.
--no-harnesses Do not install or offer any harness CLI.
--yes Take the recommended answer to every prompt, including installing every missing harness CLI.

On a terminal, setup offers each missing harness in turn. With no terminal (piped one-liner, cloud-init) it never prompts and installs nothing unless you pass --with-<harness>, --yes, or --no-harnesses. Declining is not permanent:

actana harnesses install opencode

A vendor installer that fails is reported with the vendor's docs URL and never fails your Core install.

Two doors

If you already have the CLI, actana install does both halves in one go — fetch, verify against SHA256SUMS, place, then the same activation as setup:

npm i -g @actana/cli
actana install --public-host core1.example.com --yes

install.sh stays the door for a machine with no Node: the tarball carries its own pinned runtime. Both fetch the same way. After install.sh, run setup as a second command — there is no flag that fuses them.

See also

Built by Qcentic