Access Control

The Access Control category manages authentication and authorization settings that control how users register and verify their accounts on your Hawkra instance.

Settings Reference

Registration Enabled

Key	registration_enabled
Type	Boolean (toggle)
Default	true
Encrypted	No

Controls whether new users can create accounts on your instance through the public registration page. When enabled, anyone with access to your Hawkra URL can register a new account (subject to any license-imposed user limits).

When disabled:

• The registration page displays a "Registration Disabled" message.
• New users can only be created by an administrator through the admin dashboard (Admin > Users > Create User).
• Existing users are not affected and can continue to log in normally.

tip

For production environments where you want strict control over who has access, disable public registration and create user accounts manually through the admin panel. This prevents unauthorized users from signing up even if they discover your instance URL.

Email Verification Enabled

Key	email_verification_enabled
Type	Boolean (toggle)
Default	false
Encrypted	No

When enabled, newly registered users must verify their email address by entering a 6-character verification code sent to the email they registered with. Until the code is entered, the account is not fully activated.

Prerequisites: SMTP must be configured before enabling this setting. If SMTP is not set up, the verification emails cannot be sent and users will be unable to complete registration.

When disabled:

• Users are activated immediately upon registration without any email verification step.

caution

Enabling email verification without a working SMTP configuration will prevent new users from completing registration. Configure and test your SMTP settings before turning this on.

Common Configurations

Open Registration (Default)

For evaluation environments or small teams where convenience is preferred:

• Registration Enabled: On
• Email Verification Enabled: Off

Anyone can register and immediately start using the platform.

Controlled Registration

For production environments where you want to validate user identities:

• Registration Enabled: On
• Email Verification Enabled: On
• SMTP must be configured

Users can register themselves, but must prove ownership of their email address before gaining access.

Admin-Only Access

For locked-down environments where the administrator manages all user accounts:

• Registration Enabled: Off
• Email Verification Enabled: Off (not needed since admin creates accounts directly)

Only the admin can create new user accounts through the admin dashboard.

Configuration via Environment Variables

Setting	Environment Variable
Registration Enabled	REGISTRATION_ENABLED
Email Verification Enabled	EMAIL_VERIFICATION_ENABLED

note

Remember that your license defines the maximum number of users allowed on the instance. Even with registration enabled, new registrations will be rejected once the user limit is reached. The registration page will display a "Registration Unavailable" message in this case.