# Catena documentation

Catena is a governance and banking platform for AI agents. We give your agents
access to your organization's accounts under rules that you set. Sign up at
[app.catena.com](https://app.catena.com).

Your feedback is welcome, and the more specific (for example, the command you
ran and the error you saw), the better. Your agent can send a note to the Catena
team with `catena feedback`, and you can email us at <support@catena.com>.

- [Quickstart](https://docs.catena.com/quickstart.md): Connect a terminal agent to a sandbox and make a test payment.
- [Connect an agent](https://docs.catena.com/connect.md): Use the CLI, an MCP connector, or a secret key, depending on where the agent runs.
- [Recipes and integrations](https://docs.catena.com/solutions.md): Steps for common tasks, and setup for Claude Code, Codex, and other agent tools.
- [Agent API](https://docs.catena.com/api.md): The signed agent API, and the TypeScript SDK and CLI built on it.

## Overview

Catena is built from a handful of parts that work together:

1. **Organization:** Your organization holds the accounts, and each person on
   your team has a [role](https://docs.catena.com/team.md): viewer, operator, or admin. Accounts hold
   stablecoins on more than one chain (USDC on Base and Arc, and OUSD on Base).
2. **Agents:** An agent is an identity in your organization. You'll
   [connect](https://docs.catena.com/connect.md) that identity to the software that runs the agent,
   whether that is a coding agent in a terminal, a desktop app (such as Claude
   or ChatGPT), or a service you deploy.
3. **Policies:** A [policy](https://docs.catena.com/policies.md) sets what the agent can do. It grants
   access per account, sets spending rules, and lists the counterparties the
   agent can pay. Each rule will either block an action or send it to a person
   for approval.
4. **Intents:** Every governed action an agent takes is an [intent](https://docs.catena.com/intents.md).
   When the agent sends money, adds a counterparty, or asks for a temporary
   limit increase, Catena will record an intent and check it against the policy.
   Depending on the result, the intent will complete, wait for approval, or be
   blocked.
5. **Approvals:** Admins approve or deny intents in the console. Once a payment
   is approved, it will be signed and submitted, and it will then settle or
   fail. See [Approval and execution](https://docs.catena.com/approvals.md#approval-and-execution) for
   details.

These terms can get a little abstract, so we define each of them in
[How Catena works](https://docs.catena.com/concepts.md).

## Markdown and the CLI guide

Every page on this site is also available as Markdown, so your agents can read
the same docs you do. [llms.txt](/llms.txt) lists every page with a one-line
summary, and each page has a Markdown version at its URL with `.md` added (e.g.,
`/policies.md`).

After you install the CLI, `catena guide` prints the operating guide for the
installed version. If the guide and these pages differ, follow the guide.

## Get help

There are a few places to go when you need help:

- Sign in to the console at [app.catena.com](https://app.catena.com).
- See recent changes in the [Changelog](https://docs.catena.com/changelog.md).
- Look up an error code in [Troubleshooting](https://docs.catena.com/troubleshooting.md).
- Read how Catena protects keys and money in [Security](https://docs.catena.com/security.md). To report a
  security issue, follow the instructions in
  [api.catena.com/.well-known/security.txt](https://api.catena.com/.well-known/security.txt).
- Email us at <support@catena.com>.

## Up next

[Quickstart](https://docs.catena.com/quickstart.md): step 2 of 5 in Get started.