Admin Dashboard Overview
The admin dashboard provides a centralized interface for configuring your self-hosted Hawkra instance. All platform settings are managed through a single page at /admin/settings, organized into logical categories for easy navigation.
Accessing the Admin Dashboard
Log in with an admin account and navigate to /admin/settings.
Configuration Categories
The settings page organizes all configurable options into 8 categories, each displayed as a collapsible card with an icon and title:
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Scanning | Nmap installation and network scanning (self-hosted only) |
| Platform Settings | Platform name, support email, and general configuration |
| Access Control | Registration and email verification toggles |
| Email (SMTP) | SMTP server configuration for email notifications |
| AI Configuration | LLM mode, model selection, and API keys |
| API Keys | Third-party OSINT and enrichment API keys |
| Storage | File storage backend configuration (local or S3) |
| Maintenance | Maintenance mode and messaging |
| General | Backend URL, dashboard layout, and other general settings |
Each category contains one or more individual settings displayed as rows within the card.
How Settings Work
Sensitive settings (API keys, passwords) are encrypted at rest and displayed masked in the UI — click Change to update them.
Settings Resolution Priority
Settings configured through the admin dashboard are stored in the database. However, environment variables defined in your .env file or Docker configuration always take priority. The resolution order is:
- Environment variable — If the corresponding env var is set and non-empty, it wins.
- Database value — The value configured through the admin dashboard.
- Default — The built-in default value (if applicable).
This means you can override any dashboard setting by defining the equivalent environment variable, which is useful for automated deployments or when you want to lock a setting outside the UI.
Last Updated Metadata
Each setting displays metadata showing when it was last updated and by whom. This provides an audit trail of configuration changes:
Last updated: Mar 3, 2026, 10:30 AM by admin@example.com
After completing your initial configuration, restart the server to ensure all changes take effect:
cd /opt/hawkra && docker compose -f docker-compose.selfhosted.yml restart
Some settings (particularly SMTP configuration and storage backend changes) may require a server restart to take full effect. The admin dashboard saves values to the database immediately, but services that cache their configuration at startup will pick up changes on the next restart.