Accounts & Licensing

Hive requires a license. This page covers creating a Hive account, starting the free trial, activating the desktop and mobile apps, signing in on the web client, managing devices, and what happens when a license goes offline, expires, or is revoked.

Accounts

• Register at hive.vazac.dev/register. Registration and password management always happen on the website, not in the app.
• Manage your account, license, and devices at hive.vazac.dev/account.
• Sign in inside the app from the full-screen license gate shown on first launch, or later via Settings > Account. Sign in with your email and password, or with Continue with GitHub.

Signing in with GitHub

Continue with GitHub works everywhere: the web client, and the desktop and mobile apps.

• Web client - stays on the site: you are redirected to GitHub and back to the app, all in the browser.
• Desktop / mobile app - opens your system browser to complete the GitHub sign-in, then hands the session back to the app automatically over a hive:// link. Approve the prompt to reopen Hive if your browser asks. Once signed in, a device with an available license seat is activated automatically, same as an email sign-in.

On Android and iOS, a successful sign-in should leave the browser and reopen Hive. If the browser remains on the website, or Hive reopens but stays signed out, update Hive to the latest version and try again. Older mobile builds did not handle the browser callback correctly.

GitHub sign-in reuses an existing Hive account with the same GitHub-verified email. Creating a brand-new account still goes through registration, which is invite-only during early access.

The OAuth bridge is prepared for the Hive-to-Clusto overlap. Hive clients use the existing hive:// callback and Android package com.hive.app; the future Clusto client explicitly selects clusto:// and dev.vazac.clusto. Unknown or missing client values remain on the Hive route rather than becoming arbitrary deep-link schemes.

Managing your password

Signed-in users can manage their password on the account page:

• If you joined with GitHub and do not have a Hive password, enter and confirm a password under Password, then click Set password. Passwords must be 10 to 128 characters. You can then sign in with either your email and password or GitHub.
• If your account already has a password, click Reset password. Hive sends a secure reset link to your account email so you can choose a new password.

Free 14-day trial

On the account page, click Start free 14-day trial. This mints a trial license key for your account - one per account, ever. Trial licenses expire hard after 14 days: there is no offline grace past the expiry, and the app stops working until you activate a paid license.

License keys

New license keys use CLST-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. Existing HIVE-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX keys remain valid during and after the rename overlap; both prefixes use the same checksum and activation rules. Each license has a number of seats (people); each seat may activate up to 3 devices by default. The web client does not consume a device slot - it checks the license on sign-in instead.

Activating desktop and mobile

The desktop (Windows / Linux / macOS) and mobile (Android) apps must be activated on each device. On first launch a full-screen gate asks for a license; after that, activation lives in Settings > Account. Two paths:

• Sign in with your Hive account (email/password or Continue with GitHub). The device is activated automatically using the account's license - no key to type.
• Anonymous activation - enter the license key only, no account sign-in. Useful for machines you would rather not tie to an account session.

Activation stores an Ed25519-signed license blob on the device. The signature is verified offline on every launch, so day-to-day use does not need network access to the license server (see Offline behavior below).

Web client sign-in

The web client at hive.vazac.dev/app works differently: there is no device activation on the web. Instead you must sign in with a Hive account that holds an active license. Without a licensed account, the web app does not let you past the sign-in gate.

Managing devices

Deactivate a device to free its slot:

• From the account page - hive.vazac.dev/account lists every activated device with a deactivate action. Use this for devices you no longer have access to.
• From the app - Settings > Account > Deactivate this device (requires being signed in).

Renaming a device

Each device in the account dashboard has a Rename button next to Deactivate. The license owner can rename any device on the license; a member can rename their own devices. Renaming only changes the label shown in the dashboard - it does not re-activate the device or consume a seat.

The desktop app reports its real machine hostname when it activates, so a new device lands in the list under a recognizable name. Earlier builds could register a generic label such as "linux-device"; rename any of those from the dashboard.

Offline behavior

• The signed license blob is verified offline - normal operation never blocks on the license server.
• The app re-validates online periodically in the background. If it cannot reach the license server (offline machine, air-gapped network), the license stays valid for a 30-day offline grace period from the last successful check.
• After 30 days without a successful online check, the app treats the license as stale and asks you to reconnect or re-activate.
• Trial licenses are the exception: they expire hard 14 days after issue, regardless of grace.

Troubleshooting

The app surfaces the license state in Settings > Account and on the license gate. The states you may see:

State	Meaning	Fix
Expired	The license (or trial) is past its end date.	Renew or buy a license at hive.vazac.dev/pricing, then re-activate.
Revoked	The key was revoked (refund, abuse, key rotation). The next online check picks this up.	Activate a valid key, or contact support if unexpected.
Stale	No successful online re-validation within the 30-day grace window.	Get the device online once so it can re-validate; if the device is permanently offline, deactivate and re-activate it.
No seats / device limit	Every device slot on the seat is in use.	Deactivate an old device from the account page, then activate again.

If sign-in fails on the web client with a valid account, check that the account actually holds an active license on the account page - a web sign-in without a license is rejected by design.