What is ActonOS?
ActonOS is an AI-native operating system for running autonomous agents on a MiniPC, a home server, or Docker. You talk to agents in Chat, give them tools and files, connect them to Telegram or GitHub, and let them work in the background β with approvals, sandboxes, and encrypted secrets built in.
This documentation is for people who use ActonOS: install it, create agents, connect chat apps, and (if you want) write plugins. Deep internals live in Advanced Architecture.
What you can doβ
| You want to⦠| Start here |
|---|---|
| Install and open the dashboard | System requirements β Docker or Bare-metal |
| Create an agent and run a first task | 5-minute quickstart |
| Chat, attach files, and save work | Chat and Workspace |
| Connect Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, or Zalo | Channels |
| Connect GitHub, Notion, Google Workspace, and similar apps | Connectors |
| Install or write a plugin | Plugins and Plugin SDK |
How a typical day looksβ
- Open the dashboard and check that agents, CPU, and disk look healthy.
- Chat with an agent, attach a PDF, or ask it to write a file into Workspace.
- Launch a longer Mission if the job needs several steps and checkpoints.
- Let Automations (heartbeat / cron) handle recurring checks during work hours.
- Receive Notifications when something needs your approval.
Nothing here requires you to know Go, WebAssembly, or the daemon internals.
How ActonOS is put togetherβ
ActonOS is a single daemon (actond) plus a web UI. Agents reason, call tools, and remember files. Plugins, MCP servers, and skills add extra capabilities without restarting the OS.
The important guarantees, in plain language:
- Two install modes: a dedicated MiniPC image, or Docker on a machine you already have. ActonOS detects which one it is on.
- Agents stay in a sandbox: tools cannot freely rewrite the operating system. Risky actions pause for your approval.
- Secrets stay encrypted: bot tokens and API keys go into the hardware-bound vault, not a plaintext file.
- Plugins are sandboxed: a plugin only reaches the websites and secrets you allow in its manifest.
If you want the engineering detail, read Dual-Runtime HAL and Hardware Vault.
Choose an install pathβ
- Try it quickly on a laptop or existing server: Docker deployment.
- Run it as an appliance on a MiniPC: Bare-metal installation and zero-config onboarding.
Then follow the 5-minute quickstart to create your first agent.