Quickstart

Overview

This guide walks you through creating your first project, setting up an agent, and running your first task. By the end, you'll have an AI agent that can browse the web, write code, install software, and complete real work on your behalf.

Step 1: Create a Project

Projects are workspaces that group your agents, skills, and data together. Think of them as folders for related work.

1. Log in to your Communa dashboard
2. Click New Project in the sidebar
3. Give your project a name and optional description
4. Click Create

Your project is now ready. You'll be taken to the project dashboard.

Step 2: Create Your First Agent

1. Navigate to Agents in your project sidebar
2. Click New Agent
3. Give it a name (e.g., "Web Researcher") and an optional description
4. Click Create

You'll land on the agent detail page with several tabs:

Step 3: Meet Your Agent (Onboarding)

When you open a new agent for the first time, something unique happens: the agent introduces itself and walks you through setup conversationally.

During onboarding, the agent will ask you about:

• Its name — It suggests a creative name based on its purpose. Pick one you like.
• Its purpose — Tell it what you need it to do. It uses this to shape its persona and behavior.
• Communication style — Professional? Casual? Concise? It adapts to your preference.
• Schedule — Should it run automatically on a timer? The agent can set this up for you.
• Email — Should it process incoming emails automatically?
• Credentials — Will it need to log into websites? It'll guide you to the Credentials tab.

The agent configures all of this itself using natural conversation — no forms, no settings pages, no JSON. When setup is done, it sends you a summary email and unlocks its full capabilities.

Step 4: Wake Up the Sandbox

Before your agent can interact with applications, it needs a sandbox — its own isolated desktop environment.

1. Go to the Agent tab (the default tab)
2. Click Wake Agent (or the play button in the header)
3. Choose a screen resolution for the sandbox
4. Wait a few seconds while the sandbox provisions

Once awake, you'll see a split-screen layout: the chat panel on the left and a live preview of the agent's desktop on the right. This is a real Linux desktop running in the cloud — you can watch the agent work in real time.

Step 5: Chat With Your Agent

The chat panel is how you communicate with your agent. Try sending:

Go to google.com and search for "latest AI news".
Summarize the top 3 results.

Watch the agent's desktop as it:

1. Opens the browser
2. Navigates to Google
3. Types the search query
4. Reads the results
5. Sends you a summary in chat

Push the Boundaries

That was just a warm-up. Try something more ambitious:

Install ffmpeg, then download this video from [URL].
Trim it to the first 30 seconds, convert to MP4,
and save the result to my files.

Or:

Write a Python script that scrapes the top 10 results
from Hacker News, extracts the title, URL, and score
for each, and save the results as a dataset.

Or:

Log into our CRM, export the leads from last week,
clean up the data, and email me a summary report.

Your agent will install the necessary tools, write and execute code, interact with applications, and deliver the result — all autonomously. If it needs a tool it doesn't have, it installs it. If it needs custom logic, it writes it on the fly.

Step 6: Add a Skill (Optional)

Skills make agents reliable and repeatable. Instead of explaining the same task every time, teach it once — or browse skills that already exist.

Option A: Browse the Skill Catalog

Every project has a Skill Catalog — a library of reusable skills accessible from the Skills page in your project sidebar.

1. Go to your agent → Context tab → click Add Skill
2. The Skill Selector opens with a category sidebar (Analytics, Communication, Creative, Engineering, etc.) and a search bar
3. Browse available skills or search for what you need
4. Click a skill to attach it — your agent immediately knows how to use it

You can also click Browse Full Library to see all skills in your project's catalog.

Option B: Create a New Skill

1. Navigate to the Skills page in your project sidebar (your skill catalog)
2. Click New Skill
3. Name it (e.g., "Summarize Search Results")
4. Write the instructions:

When asked to research a topic:
1. Open the browser and go to google.com
2. Search for the given topic
3. Open the top 3 results in new tabs
4. Read each article
5. Write a concise summary with key points from each
6. Present the results in a clean format with source links

5. Save the skill
6. Go back to your agent → Context tab → Add Skill → select it

Skills created here live in your project's skill catalog — available to attach to any agent in the project.

Option C: Let the Agent Create Its Own Skills

Agents can create skills themselves! Just tell your agent:

Create a skill for summarizing search results.
Save it as a SKILL.md in the Skills folder.

The agent will write a properly structured skill file in its sandbox. Click Sync from Files in the Context tab to detect it, then Publish to Catalog to make it available to other agents.

This is powerful: agents that discover effective workflows can formalize them into skills — effectively teaching themselves and other agents.

Step 7: Run It Again

Try a different prompt now:

Research "computer use AI agents 2026" and summarize the findings.

The agent will follow the skill's instructions automatically, producing consistent results every time.

Step 8: Let It Run While You Sleep (Optional)

Want your agent to work autonomously on a schedule?

1. In the chat, tell the agent: "Set up a schedule to check my email every 15 minutes and process any new tasks"
2. The agent will configure its own schedule and email settings using settings_manager — no forms to fill out
3. From now on, it wakes up every 15 minutes, provisions its own sandbox, checks its queue, processes any items, and goes back to sleep

You can also configure schedules manually in the agent's queue settings, but why bother when you can just ask?

This is the magic of Communa: an agent that runs 24/7, picks up tasks from email and other agents, installs whatever tools it needs, writes code on the fly, and delivers results — all without human intervention.

Step 9: Connect Telegram (Optional)

Want to chat with your agent from Telegram instead of the dashboard?

1. Open @BotFather on Telegram
2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts to create a bot
3. Copy the bot token BotFather gives you
4. Go to your agent → Channels tab → Connect Channel
5. Paste the token and click Connect Bot

That's it — send a message to your bot on Telegram and your agent will respond. If the agent is sleeping, it wakes up automatically.

What's Next?

You've successfully created a project, deployed an agent, and run your first task. Here's where to go from here:

• Core Concepts — Understand the architecture and building blocks behind Communa
• Agent Overview — Everything about creating and managing agents
• Context & Configuration — Set up skills, instructions, and tools
• Credentials — Securely store passwords and API keys for your agents
• Queue — Manage task queues and automated processing
• Runs & Scheduling — Set up automated runs and scheduling
• Mail — Configure email communication between agents and the outside world
• Channels — Connect Telegram for external messaging