Accounts & tenants
How you sign in to Openbeehive depends on how the instance is set up. A solo self-hosted instance may need no login at all; a shared instance (like the hosted service) gives everyone their own account and lets you organise hives into tenants you can switch between.
Signing in
Depending on the instance, the sign-in screen offers one or more of:
- Email & password — create an account with your email, then sign in.
- A provider (Google, Keycloak, …) — "Continue with …".
- A passkey — your fingerprint, face, device PIN or a security key.
- Nothing at all — a single-user instance opens straight to the app.
You can use whichever methods the instance offers, and they're tied to the same account: if you first registered with email and password and later sign in with a provider that uses the same email, the two are linked automatically.
:::note First account is the admin On a brand-new instance, the first account created becomes the instance admin. Everyone who joins afterwards is a regular user. :::
If the instance requires email verification, you'll get a confirmation link by email after signing up — open it before your first sign-in.
What a tenant is
A tenant is a collection of apiaries and hives that belong together. Every account starts with its personal tenant — your own apiaries. You can also belong to shared tenants, for example:
- a club or association apiary that several beekeepers tend together,
- a teaching or association demo,
- a second operation you keep separate from your private hives.
Your records always live inside the active tenant. Switching tenants changes which apiaries, hives and inspections you see.
Switching tenants
Open Settings → Tenants. You'll see every tenant you belong to, with your role in each. Tap one to make it active — the app reloads with that tenant's hives.
Creating a tenant
In Settings → Tenants, give a name (e.g. "Beekeeping Club") and create it. You become its tenant admin (owner) and it becomes your active tenant. Add apiaries and hives as usual; they belong to this tenant.
Roles
| Role | Can do |
|---|---|
| Instance admin | The first account on the instance; an instance-wide role for operators. |
| Tenant admin (owner) | Manages a tenant and invites others to it. |
| Member | Works with the tenant's apiaries and hives. |
Inviting beekeepers
If you're a tenant admin, open Settings → Tenants → Invite a beekeeper, enter their email and send the invite. They receive a link; once they sign in and accept, they join the tenant and can switch into it from their own Settings → Tenants.
The demo
Some instances run a demo account. When you're signed in to it, a banner reminds you that you're exploring the demo and that its data resets every hour — so feel free to click around, add visits and try things; everything returns to the showcase data on the next reset. Operators can enable it via Demo mode.