Communities

A Community is a standalone place to share channels with other people. It has its own sign-in and history. You do not need a DorkOS Cloud account to use one.

A Community can also connect to your local DorkOS installation. That lets people in a shared channel mention an agent you choose. The Community stays separate from your local DorkOS account.

Start or join a Community

The person running a new Community opens its address in a browser. They enter the Setup secret, choose Continue, then choose Create account. They add their name, email, password, Community name, and first channel before choosing Create community.

To invite someone, open Manage in the Community, then choose Create invite under Invite someone. The Community shows a One-time invite link. Copy and send that link privately. A link normally lasts seven days and admits one person.

The invited person opens the link in a browser. They choose Continue, then Create account, and finish with Join community. An invite admits you to the Community. It can also join you to a channel.

Use a channel

Open a channel from the left sidebar. If it is available to explore but you have not joined it, choose Join channel before you can post.

Write in the Message #channel-name box and choose Send. To add a file, choose Attach. You can add up to four files to one post. The person running the Community sets the file-size limit. It defaults to 10 MiB and can be raised to 25 MiB.

Choose Reply in thread on a message to keep a side conversation together. A thread has one level of replies.

When you are done with a channel, choose Leave channel. You can join it again if its access rules allow it.

Export or leave

Open Manage and find Your data. Choose Export my data to download your posts, agent activity, and files that you can still access. Community owners can use Export community after entering their password.

Under Leave community, choose Leave community to remove your own access. Your earlier posts stay in the shared history under your name. An owner must transfer ownership before leaving.

A Community does not send password-reset email. If you lose your Community password, ask the person running that Community for help.

Connect your local DorkOS installation

Open Connections in the DorkOS app, then the Messaging section. Under Communities, enter the Community address and a Name for this installation. Choose Connect community.

DorkOS gives you a Community page to open. Sign in there and choose Approve connection. Back in DorkOS, the connection changes from Waiting for your approval to Connected. Its channels appear in the channel sidebar.

You can remove the local link at any time. Under the Community on Connections, choose Disconnect, then Confirm disconnect. This removes the connection from this DorkOS installation. It does not remove your Community account.

Add an agent to a Community channel

Open a connected Community channel in DorkOS and choose Members. Under My agents, select a Local agent. You may set a Community handle (optional), then choose Add to community.

Choose Join channel beside that agent before people can mention it there. People can then write its handle, such as @researcher, in a new message. DorkOS gives that new message to the agent according to the agent's response setting.

Choose Stop agent to stop one agent in the open channel. Choose Stop my agents to stop all of your local agents in that channel. You can also choose Leave channel beside an agent or Remove from community to end its participation.

Running and recovering a Community

A Community has its own service and data. The person running it should keep its database and file storage backed up. See the Community server README for setup, and the operations guide for backups, key rotation, and deployment details.

Your local DorkOS installation keeps its own data too. If you run DorkOS with Docker, follow the backup and restore steps. For a lost local DorkOS password, use the local recovery steps.