---
title: "Panel"
url: "https://control.actana.ai/docs/panel"
description: "Driving work from the browser: the first-run wizard, Fleet, projects, and live terminal sessions."
updated: 2026-09-01T09:03:09+00:00
---

The Panel is how you drive work on paired machines from a browser. It holds no projects, sessions, or files of its own — everything live arrives over the panel-link; first paint is server-rendered, then the tab stays current.

A Panel that knows no Cores opens in the [first-run wizard](/docs/panel/first-run) — install a Core, pair it, and the app unlocks. After that you always start in [Fleet](/docs/panel/fleet): every Core's sessions in one list. Click a Core to enter it. The shell has no Core switcher — to work on a different machine, go back to Fleet and pick another.

Inside a Core the surface is the same every time: project rail, session grid, then the live terminal. Sessions split into needs-input, running, and finished, so a machine that is waiting on you is visible without opening it.

```mermaid
flowchart LR
  W[First-run wizard] -->|pair a Core| F[Fleet]
  F --> C[Pick a Core]
  C --> P[Project rail]
  P --> G[Session grid]
  G --> T[Terminal]
```

## In this section

- [First-Run Wizard](/docs/panel/first-run) — what a Panel with zero Cores shows, and why there is no way past it.
- [Fleet](/docs/panel/fleet) — live fan-out across Cores.
- [Projects](/docs/panel/projects) — folders on the Core; unlink never deletes files.
- [Sessions](/docs/panel/sessions) — real PTYs, one writer, others read.

## See also

- [Panel Installation](/docs/install/panel-installation) — deploy, configure, back up.
- [Panel Pairing](/docs/pairing/panel-pairing)
- [How it works](/docs/introduction/how-it-works)