5. Sign in for the first time

The app signs people in with a magic link: you type your email address, the app emails you a one-time link, and opening it signs you in. No password is involved.

On your machine those emails never leave it. They go to MailDev, a local mail inbox that catches every message the app sends.

1. Open http://localhost:3000/signin.
2. Type an email address and choose Send magic link. The page changes to "Check your email".
3. Open http://localhost:1080. The message "Sign in to localhost:3000" is at the top.
4. Open the sign-in link in that message. You land on the home page, signed in.

Any address works locally, because MailDev catches all mail. Use your real address. Admin rights you grant on the next page stay in this local database, so you will grant them again on the live server (Deployment, step 6).

The first sign-in creates your user. There is no separate sign-up step.

GitHub and Google sign-in buttons appear only once their credentials are set. They are optional; OAuth providers walks through registering each one.

If no email arrives, check that MailDev is running (docker compose ps lists a maildev container). The app also allows only three links per address in five minutes; past that the request fails, so wait a few minutes and try again.

How the sign-in works underneath is in Auth Flow.

Next: Make yourself an admin