Install on a VPS

Deploy Comis on Hostinger, DigitalOcean, Hetzner, or any Ubuntu VPS in under 10 minutes

This guide walks you through deploying Comis on a fresh VPS (Virtual Private Server). By the end you will have a running daemon managed by systemd, with your AI agent reachable through Telegram, Discord, or any supported channel.

The instructions work on any provider that gives you an Ubuntu server with root SSH access — Hostinger, DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Vultr, Linode, AWS Lightsail, and others.

You don’t need to understand the technical details to use this feature. The configuration examples below are copy-paste ready.

What you need

Before you start, have these ready:

Item	Where to get it
A VPS running Ubuntu 22.04+ with at least 1 GB RAM	Your hosting provider’s dashboard
Root SSH access to the server	Your provider sends credentials after purchase
An AI provider API key (Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google)	Anthropic Console, OpenAI Platform, or Google AI Studio
A chat channel bot token (optional)	See the Channels section for setup guides

Most providers offer an Ubuntu image by default. If you have a choice, pick Ubuntu 24.04 LTS — it has the best compatibility with Comis.

Step 1: Connect to your server

Open a terminal on your computer and SSH into your VPS. Replace the IP address with your server’s address.

ssh root@your-server-ip

Your provider may give you a password or an SSH key. Hostinger, for example, shows the password in the VPS dashboard under SSH Access.

If your provider gives you a password, you will be prompted to enter it after running the SSH command. You can also set up SSH keys later for passwordless login.

Step 2: Install Comis

Run the one-line installer. It handles everything: Node.js, system packages, a dedicated comis user, systemd service, and the Comis package itself.

curl -fsSL https://comis.ai/install.sh | bash

The installer takes 2-3 minutes. You will see a progress log like this:

  COMIS Installer
  Friendly by nature. Powerful by design.

  [1/4] Preparing system (as root)
  ✓ Node.js v22 installed
  ✓ System dependencies ready
  ✓ User 'comis' created

  [2/4] Installing Comis
  ✓ Comis npm package installed

  [2/4] Registering daemon as a service
  ✓ comis.service started
  ✓ Daemon is responding on the gateway port

  Comis installed successfully (1.0.42)!

Do not run the installer with sudo. Run it as root directly. The installer creates a dedicated comis user with restricted permissions and runs the daemon under that user — this is the secure default.

Want the browser tool too?

If your agent needs to drive a browser (scraping, dashboards, authenticated workflows, anti-bot-protected sites), add a stealth flag to the install line. Same command, more provisioning:

# Stock Chrome — enough for most public sites
curl -fsSL https://comis.ai/install.sh | bash -s -- --with-browser

# Stealth Chromium — bypasses Cloudflare Turnstile, FingerprintJS,
# BrowserScan, and Reddit's secondary fingerprint check
curl -fsSL https://comis.ai/install.sh | bash -s -- --with-cloakbrowser

# Full stack — for sites that detect headless mode itself
curl -fsSL https://comis.ai/install.sh | bash -s -- --with-cloakbrowser --with-xvfb

VPS providers are pre-blocked by Reddit, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, and many anti-bot services at the IP layer. Hostinger, DigitalOcean, AWS, Hetzner — all flagged regardless of which browser you run. CloakBrowser does not include a proxy: it fixes browser-fingerprint detection, not IP reputation. If you want Reddit/social scraping from a VPS, pair --with-cloakbrowser with a residential proxy. If you only need to hit Cloudflare-protected sites that don’t blocklist VPS ranges, the stealth flag alone is enough.

Sites verified bypassed on a Hostinger VPS with --with-cloakbrowser: bot.incolumitas.com (1 fail vs 4 for stock Chrome), browserscan.net (Normal vs Robot). Reddit and X stayed blocked due to IP filtering, not fingerprint detection.

See agent-tools/browser for the full flag matrix, sandbox details, and license terms (CloakBrowser’s binary is free for self-hosted use; OEM license needed for redistributing to third-party customers).

Step 3: Switch to the comis user

The daemon runs under its own system user. Switch to it for all Comis commands:

su - comis

Verify the installation:

comis --version

Expected output (version number — yours may differ):

1.0.42

Step 4: Run the setup wizard

The interactive wizard configures your AI provider, generates a gateway token, and (optionally) connects a chat channel.

comis init

The wizard walks you through:

1. AI Provider — choose Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google and paste your API key
2. Agent name — give your agent a personality
3. Channels — connect Telegram, Discord, or others (you can skip and add later)
4. Gateway security — auto-generates an authentication token
5. Start daemon — restarts the daemon with your new configuration

When the wizard asks to restart the daemon, choose Restart (recommended). This ensures the daemon picks up your API key and gateway token immediately.

Codex OAuth on headless hosts

If you pick openai-codex as your provider on a VPS, the wizard’s auto-default for the login method is Device code (phone) — the recommended path on headless hosts. This is because VPS images typically lack a default browser, and SSH sessions usually have no clipboard or scrollback that the browser-paste flow relies on.

The wizard detects headless hosts via standard environment variables:

• SSH_CLIENT or SSH_TTY set, or
• DISPLAY unset

When detected, the picker pre-selects Device code (phone). You confirm by pressing Enter; the wizard prints a short code and a verification URL like https://chat.openai.com/oauth/device. Open that URL on your phone or laptop browser, sign into ChatGPT, and type the code. The wizard polls every 5 seconds and continues once the code is accepted.

You can re-run the OAuth login at any time, with or without finishing the wizard. From a TTY:

comis auth login --provider openai-codex --method device-code

This is the same flow the wizard runs and writes to the same OAuth credential store. Use it if you picked Skip for now in the wizard or want to add a second ChatGPT account (multi-account is supported — see OAuth concepts -> Multi-account profiles).

For the wizard’s full 4-option picker walkthrough — including the local-desktop and browser-manual-paste options — see the Quickstart. For the OAuth threat model and storage backends, see OAuth concepts.

Step 5: Verify everything works

comis status

You should see all systems online:

  Daemon
     Status    online
     Uptime    12s

  Gateway
     Status     online
     Address    127.0.0.1:4766

  Agents
  ┌─────────┬───────────┬─────────────────┐
  │ Name    │ Provider  │ Model           │
  ├─────────┼───────────┼─────────────────┤
  │ default │ anthropic │ claude-opus-4-6 │
  └─────────┴───────────┴─────────────────┘

Run the doctor to check for any issues:

comis doctor

Managing the daemon

The comis user has full control over the daemon:

comis daemon status    # Check if running
comis daemon start     # Start the daemon
comis daemon stop      # Stop the daemon
comis daemon logs      # View recent logs
comis daemon logs -f   # Follow logs in real-time

The daemon runs under systemd and starts automatically on boot. If you ever need to restart it as root:

sudo systemctl restart comis

Common tasks

Change the AI model

comis models list --provider anthropic
comis models set default claude-sonnet-4-6

Add a Telegram bot

1. Create a bot with @BotFather on Telegram
2. Copy the bot token
3. Run the setup wizard for channels:

comis configure --section channels

Or edit the config directly:

comis config show channels

See the Telegram channel guide for detailed instructions.

Check memory and sessions

comis memory stats          # Memory database statistics
comis memory search "topic" # Search stored memories
comis sessions list         # List active sessions

Run a security audit

comis security audit        # Check for security issues
comis secrets audit         # Scan for plaintext secrets

Provider-specific notes

Hostinger

Hostinger VPS plans come with Ubuntu and root SSH access by default.

1. In the Hostinger dashboard, go to VPS and find your server’s IP and password
2. SSH in: ssh root@your-ip
3. Run the installer as shown above

Hostinger’s KVM plans (starting at 1 GB RAM) work well with Comis. The installer handles all dependencies automatically.

DigitalOcean

Create a Droplet with Ubuntu 24.04, minimum 1 GB / 1 vCPU.

1. In the DigitalOcean dashboard, create a new Droplet
2. Choose Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
3. Select the $6/month plan (1 GB RAM) or higher
4. Add your SSH key or choose password authentication
5. SSH in and run the installer

DigitalOcean Droplets work out of the box — no extra configuration needed.

Hetzner

Create a server with Ubuntu 24.04, minimum CX22 (2 GB RAM).

1. In the Hetzner Cloud console, create a new server
2. Choose Ubuntu 24.04
3. Select CX22 or higher
4. Add your SSH key
5. SSH in and run the installer

Hetzner offers excellent value for Comis deployments, especially the ARM-based CAX servers.

Vultr / Linode / AWS Lightsail

Any provider that offers Ubuntu 22.04+ with root access works identically:

1. Create an Ubuntu instance with at least 1 GB RAM
2. SSH in as root
3. Run the one-line installer

The installer auto-detects the environment and handles everything.

Troubleshooting

Installer fails with 'npm install' errors

Clear the npm cache and retry:

npm cache clean --force
curl -fsSL https://comis.ai/install.sh | bash

Daemon won't start after comis init

The daemon may need a restart to pick up the new configuration:

comis daemon stop
comis daemon start
comis daemon logs --lines 20

If the logs show startup errors, check your API key is valid:

comis doctor

'comis status' shows offline but daemon is running

This usually means the gateway token is not loaded. Restart the daemon:

comis daemon stop
comis daemon start

If that doesn’t help, re-run the setup wizard:

comis init

Cannot stop/start daemon as comis user

If you see a permissions error, the sudoers rule may be missing. As root:

echo 'comis ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/systemctl start comis, /usr/bin/systemctl stop comis, /usr/bin/systemctl restart comis' > /etc/sudoers.d/comis
chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers.d/comis

Then switch back to the comis user and try again.

Server runs out of memory

Comis uses around 300-500 MB of RAM. If your server has only 1 GB, consider:

• Adding swap space: fallocate -l 1G /swapfile && chmod 600 /swapfile && mkswap /swapfile && swapon /swapfile
• Upgrading to a 2 GB plan
• Using a smaller model (e.g., claude-haiku-4-5 instead of claude-opus-4-6)

Uninstalling

To completely remove Comis from the server:

# As root
curl -fsSL https://comis.ai/install.sh | bash -s -- --uninstall --remove-user

This stops the daemon, removes the systemd service, deletes the comis user, and cleans up all data.

Next steps

Connect Channels

Add Telegram, Discord, Slack, or other messaging platforms.

Configure Your Agent

Customize your agent’s personality, tools, and behavior.

Set Up Security

Enable encrypted secrets, TLS, and approval gates.

Monitor Operations

Logs, metrics, and the web dashboard.