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First run

A fresh Caravel has no accounts, and a Caravel with no accounts always allows a registration. So the first thing to do is register — that account becomes the admin.

Create the first account

  1. Open http://localhost:8080.
  2. Press Create one under the login form, and register a username, display name and password.
  3. You are logged in, and you are the administrator.

Once that account exists, registration closes again: an anonymous visitor gets no register link, and a registration attempt is refused.

There is no signup environment variable

Earlier versions had a CARAVEL_OPEN_SIGNUP. It is gone — registration is an instance setting stored in the database and changed from the Administration screen. Two sources for one answer means the admin screen can show something the server does not believe, and no user can tell which one is lying.

Letting other people in

Everything below is on the Administration screen, which is in the user menu (top right) for administrators only.

Create their account for them. Under Add an account, enter a username, a display name and a password, and tell them the password — they can change it in their own settings. This is the most controlled route and needs nothing switched on.

Open registration for a while. Under Registration, tick Anyone can register an account, let the people you want in register themselves, then untick it. Convenient for a group that has no accounts yet.

Warning

Open registration is exactly what it says: anyone who can reach the URL can create an account. On an instance reachable from the internet, untick it again as soon as everyone is in.

Either way, having an account is not the same as being on a trip. To share a trip, open it, go to its People on this trip section and add them by their exact username — they need an account on this Caravel already. Each person is an editor (can change the trip) or a viewer (read-only).

What to set up next

  • Address search already works, against OpenStreetMap's Nominatim. If you will use it heavily, read Address search — the usage policy matters and self-hosting is an option.
  • The assistant is off until you configure it, and needs a model endpoint you host or pay for. See The assistant.
  • Web search is off until you pick a provider. It feeds the assistant and adds web results to the image picker. See Web search.
  • Put it behind TLS if it is reachable from outside your own network. See Behind a reverse proxy.
  • Set up backups before there is anything to lose. See Backup and restore.