Create a Web Account

News Dashboard supports two authentication methods depending on how the server is configured:

• Local password auth — username and password stored in the app's database
• Keycloak auth — single sign-on through an external Keycloak provider

The registration flow differs for each. This guide covers both.

Before you start

You need the URL of a running News Dashboard instance. The public instance is at news.lihor.ro. Self-hosters should use their own domain.

Open the URL in any modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge). You will see the Sign in page.

Local password auth (default)

When Keycloak is not enabled, the login page shows a username and password form, plus a link to switch to email code login.

First admin bootstrap

The very first account on a fresh server is created through the bootstrap mechanism. The server administrator sets the environment variables BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_USERNAME and BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_PASSWORD before starting the app. On first startup, the app creates an admin user with those credentials.

Ask your server administrator for the bootstrap credentials if you should be the first admin.

Additional users

If you are an admin, you can create additional users through the Admin panel (visible to admin users only). Go to Settings → Admin → Users and click Generate user. This creates a local user account with a generated username and password that you can share with the new user.

Signing in

1. Enter your Username and Password.
2. Click Sign in.
3. On success, you are redirected to your Today Feed (or the page you were trying to reach).

If you do not have an account yet, ask an admin to create one for you.

Email code login (alternative)

The login page also offers an email code option. Click Use email code instead, enter your email address, and a 6-digit code will be sent to it. Enter the code to sign in. This requires the server to have an email sending channel configured.

Keycloak auth

When Keycloak is enabled, the login page shows a Sign in with Keycloak button and a Create Account link.

1. Click Sign in with Keycloak to be redirected to the Keycloak login page.
2. Enter your Keycloak credentials.
3. After successful authentication, you are redirected back to News Dashboard.

To create a new account through Keycloak:

1. Click the Create Account link on the login page.
2. You are redirected to the Keycloak registration form.
3. Fill in the required fields and submit.
4. After registration, you are redirected back to News Dashboard and automatically signed in.

The Create Account link is only available when Keycloak is enabled. For local password auth, account creation is handled by an admin through the Admin panel.

After signing in

Once you are signed in, you land on your Today Feed — the main triage view. See the User Guide to learn how to use it.

If this is your first time using News Dashboard, the app will have already seeded a set of default news sources. Articles will start appearing after the next ingest cycle (or you can trigger an ingest from the Sources page).

Troubleshooting

Problem	Likely cause	Solution
"Not authenticated" / redirected to login	Session expired	Sign in again
"Invalid username or password"	Wrong credentials	Check your username and password; contact an admin to reset
No "Create Account" link	Server uses local auth	Ask an admin to create an account for you
Keycloak login fails	Keycloak server unreachable or misconfigured	Contact your server administrator