Introduction
Learn what Communa is, why it exists, and how it gives you AI agents with real superpowers.
What is Communa?
Communa is the operating system for autonomous AI agents. It lets you deploy AI agents that each run in their own isolated environment — complete with a real desktop, unrestricted terminal, file system, database, credential vault, and communication layer.
Think of it as giving each AI agent their own computer — and the skills of a senior engineer, marketer, data analyst, and operations specialist combined.
Tip: Your agent already knows everything in this documentation by heart. Instead of reading through these pages, you can simply ask your agent — "How do skills work?", "Set up a schedule for me", "What tools do you have?" — and it will explain, guide you, or just do it for you. Your agent can also configure itself through conversation: schedules, email, instructions, and more. These docs exist as a reference, but your agent is always the fastest path to answers and action.
Why Communa Exists
Three problems exist in the AI agent space today:
1. Limited Capabilities
Most platforms give you a chat interface with a handful of API integrations. That works for answering questions and simple tasks. But real work — the kind that involves logging into apps, filling forms, processing spreadsheets, editing videos, writing and deploying code — requires a real computer.
2. Overwhelming Complexity
Platforms that do offer more capabilities force you into complicated drag-and-drop flowcharts, JSON configurations, code blocks, and integration setups. You shouldn't need a software engineering degree to build an AI agent.
3. Narrow, Predefined Actions
Even platforms that call themselves "agent builders" limit agents to a fixed set of predefined actions — search the web, send an email, query a database. Real work is messy and unpredictable. It requires installing software, writing custom scripts, interacting with UIs that have no API, and adapting to unexpected situations on the fly.
A Different Approach
Communa takes a fundamentally different approach. Each agent is a true AI conversation. You tell it what to do in plain language. It configures itself, manages its own tools, and executes real work on a real computer.
No flowcharts. No JSON. No code blocks. Just a conversation with an intelligent agent that has its own OS.
When you create a new agent, it walks you through setup conversationally — asking about its purpose, tone, schedule, and email preferences — then configures itself. From that point on, you interact with it the same way you would with a human teammate: through natural conversation.
What Your Agents Can Actually Do
Agents on Communa aren't limited to a single task or domain. They operate a full computer with unrestricted terminal access — meaning they can do virtually anything a skilled human can do at a keyboard.
Work Across Every Domain
- Personal Assistant & Productivity — Manage your inbox, schedule meetings, research topics, process invoices, organize files, send follow-ups, and handle daily busywork. Like having a tireless executive assistant that works around the clock and never forgets a task.
- Coding & Engineering — Write, debug, test, and deploy code in any language. Install frameworks, run test suites, commit to git, spin up servers, and ship to production. From frontend to backend, scripts to full-stack apps.
- Data & Analytics — Scrape websites, process spreadsheets, build reports, analyze trends, run SQL queries, write data pipelines, and populate structured datasets. Turn raw data into actionable insights.
- Marketing & Content — Draft blog posts, create SEO audits, analyze campaign performance, manage ad spend, design slides, generate reports, and build content calendars.
- Sales & CRM — Research prospects, qualify leads, update pipelines, draft personalized outreach, manage follow-ups, and track deal stages across platforms.
- DevOps & Infrastructure — Monitor services, investigate incidents, fix configurations, restart pods, apply patches, manage deployments, and post status updates.
- Communication & Coordination — Send and receive emails, process inboxes, coordinate with other agents, route tasks, and report to team members automatically.
- File Processing & Media — Convert file formats, process PDFs, manipulate images, edit videos with ffmpeg, merge documents, extract text from scans, and transform media files.
- Any Digital Task — If it can be done on a computer, your agent can likely do it. Form filling, browser testing, API integration, document generation, web research, database management — the possibilities are bounded only by what software exists.
The Power of Unrestricted Terminal Access
Every agent has full terminal access — the same power a senior engineer has on their workstation. This is transformative:
- Install anything on the fly — Need ffmpeg for video processing? Python for data analysis? Puppeteer for browser testing? The agent runs
apt-get installorpip installand sets up whatever it needs. No pre-configured tool list. No waiting for integrations. - Write and run code in any language — Agents don't just use pre-built tools. When a task requires custom logic, they write scripts in Python, Node.js, Bash, Go, or any language — then execute them immediately. Need a custom data pipeline? The agent writes it, runs it, and delivers the results.
- Chain complex workflows — Combine terminal commands, browser automation, file management, and web research in a single task. Download a CSV, process it with Python, upload results to a web app, and email a summary — all in one conversation.
- Create their own skills — When agents develop effective workflows, they can save them as formal skills by writing
SKILL.mdfiles in their sandbox'sSkills/folder. These skills are automatically detected and can be published to your project's skill catalog for reuse across other agents. Agents also update their own instructions viasettings_managerto improve over time — they literally self-evolve.
This means you never hit a wall. If an agent encounters a task that requires a tool it doesn't have, it installs it. If a task requires custom logic, it writes it. If a workflow needs optimization, it refactors its own approach.
Always On, Always Ready
Agents don't need to be babysat. They operate in three modes:
- On-demand — Chat with an agent in real time. Give it a task, watch it work on the live desktop preview, and interact as needed.
- Scheduled (24/7) — Set a schedule (every 5 minutes to every 24 hours) and the agent wakes up automatically, provisions its own sandbox, processes its queue, and goes back to sleep. No human intervention needed.
- Event-driven — When an email arrives or another agent sends a task, items are automatically queued. The agent picks them up on its next scheduled run — or you can trigger processing manually.
- Channel-connected — Connect Telegram (and more coming soon) so you can message your agent directly from external platforms. Messages wake the agent automatically and are handled the same way as dashboard chat.
Scheduled agents automatically provision their own sandbox, process all pending queue items, and shut down cleanly when done. They run 24/7 without you lifting a finger. Your digital workforce operates while you sleep.
Who Is Communa For?
Communa is built for anyone who wants AI that can actually do things — without building complicated flowcharts or writing integration code:
- Ops teams automating data entry, report generation, cross-app workflows, and repetitive digital tasks
- Developers building AI-powered pipelines without the drag-and-drop overhead — just tell the agent what to build
- Agencies deploying multiple specialized agents for different clients, each with their own workspace and credentials
- Founders & solo operators who need a digital team that works around the clock on research, outreach, data processing, and operations
- Anyone who's tired of AI that can only talk — and wants AI that can work
How This Documentation Is Organized
This documentation covers everything you need to get started and go deep:
- Getting Started — What you're reading now. Covers concepts, quickstart, and architecture.
- Agents — Creating agents, the chat & sandbox workspace, skills, credentials, datasets, files, email, queue, runs, and scheduling.
- Platform — Workspaces, projects, navigation, dashboards, billing, and team management.
Tip: If you're new to Communa, start with the Quickstart to deploy your first agent in under 5 minutes.
Key Terminology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Agent | An autonomous AI entity with its own isolated sandbox, skills, and tools. Each agent runs in its own desktop environment with full terminal access and its own email address. |
| Project | A workspace that groups related agents, skills, and data together. |
| Skill | A reusable set of instructions that teaches an agent how to perform a specific task. |
| Credential | An encrypted secret (password, API key, token) that agents can use without seeing the raw value. |
| Dataset | A structured table of data that agents extract, create, or transform during their work. |
| Sandbox | The isolated desktop environment where an agent operates — including screen, file system, and full terminal access. |
| Queue | A list of tasks waiting to be processed by an agent. Items can be added manually, from emails, or from other agents. |
| Run | A single execution of an agent task — from start to completion. |
| Onboarding | The conversational setup flow where a new agent introduces itself and configures its own settings through chat. |
| Training | The iterative process of teaching an agent your specific workflows through task assignment, feedback, and skill refinement — like onboarding a new employee, but 100x faster. |
| Skill Catalog | Your project's library of reusable skills. Browse, search, create, and share skills across all agents in a project. |
| Channel | An external messaging platform connection (e.g., Telegram) that lets you chat with your agent outside the dashboard. Messages are handled the same way as dashboard chat. |
| Bash | Full terminal access that lets agents install software, run scripts in any language, and execute any command — like having a senior engineer's terminal. |