Accounts

Your lnkify account is your identity within the application. It owns your shortlinks, stores your API keys, and secures your data. This page covers everything about account creation, authentication, password management, and security.

Creating an Account

To create a new account:

1. Navigate to /auth/signup or click Sign Up from the login page
2. Fill in the required fields:
   • Name — your display name, shown in the dashboard header and profile
   • Email — must be a valid email address; this is your login identifier
   • Password — at least 8 characters, and must include at least one letter and one number (symbols are allowed but not required)
3. Click Sign Up
4. On success, you are automatically logged in and redirected to the Dashboard

No email verification required

lnkify does not require email verification by default. Your account is ready immediately after signup.

Logging In

To log in to an existing account:

1. Navigate to /auth (the login page)
2. Enter your registered email and password
3. Click Log In

If your credentials are correct, you'll be redirected to the dashboard.

Authentication Errors

Error	Likely Cause
Invalid credentials	Wrong email or password
Account not found	Email doesn't match any registered user
Server error	The lnkify server may be unreachable — check your connection

Sessions

lnkify uses JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for authentication:

• After login, your token is stored in the browser's localStorage and reused on each request, so you stay logged in across browser restarts until the token expires or you log out.
• Tokens expire after a server-configured duration (7 days by default). When your token expires you'll be sent back to the login page.
• There are no server-side sessions — the token itself is the proof of authentication.

Changing Your Password

Password changes happen from the dashboard while you're logged in (there is no email-based "forgot password" reset flow):

1. Open Settings from the dashboard sidebar
2. Find the Change Password section
3. Enter your current password
4. Enter your new password (at least 8 characters, including a letter and a number) and confirm it
5. Click Update Password

Your session remains active after the change.

Protected Routes

The dashboard is served at the root of the app host (e.g. app.lnkify.io) and requires login. Every screen — Links (/), Analytics (/analytics), Domains (/domains), API Keys (/api-keys), Settings (/settings), etc. — is behind an authentication wrapper. If you open one without being logged in, you're redirected to /auth.

Publicly accessible without authentication:

• /auth, /auth/signup — login and signup pages
• Shortlink redirects, QR codes, and bio pages served by the API host

Logging Out

To log out:

1. Click your profile icon or avatar in the top-right corner of the dashboard
2. Click Logout from the dropdown menu

Logging out clears your JWT token from browser storage and redirects you to the login page.

Account Security Tips

• Use a strong, unique password — avoid reusing passwords from other services
• Keep your JWT safe — never share your browser's developer console, and don't paste tokens into public spaces
• Log out on shared devices — always log out when using a public or shared computer
• Use HTTPS — ensure your lnkify instance is served over HTTPS (your administrator should configure this)
• Revoke unused API keys — regularly check the API Keys screen and revoke any you no longer need

Session Management

• No server-side sessions — lnkify is stateless; authentication is purely token-based
• Token expiration — JWTs expire after a configured duration (default is typically 7 days). When your token expires, you'll be redirected to login
• No concurrent session tracking — lnkify does not track or limit the number of active sessions per account
• No device management — there is no built-in view of logged-in devices

Next: Creating Shortlinks