Demo Mode

Demo Mode

Demo mode lets you run a public "try before you install" instance of TREK. A shared demo account is available for visitors, write operations are blocked for that account, and the database resets automatically every hour so the instance stays in a known state.

Enabling demo mode

Set DEMO_MODE=true in your environment and restart TREK. See Environment-Variables for how to set environment variables.

When demo mode is active, the login page shows a one-click "Try the demo" button. Clicking it logs the visitor in as the demo user immediately — no credentials need to be entered and no registration is required.

Demo account (auto-created on first start):

Field	Value
Email	demo@trek.app
Password	demo12345

What the demo user can and cannot do

The demo user account has read access to the shared trip data but the following operations are permanently blocked:

• Password change — returns 403.
• Account deletion — returns 403.
• MFA enrollment or removal — returns 403.
• File uploads — avatar uploads, trip cover uploads, and document/photo file attachments are blocked and return 403.
• All MCP write tools — create, update, and delete operations via the MCP API are blocked for the demo user.

Registration is also disabled while demo mode is active — visitors cannot create new accounts.

The admin account is unaffected and retains full access.

Hourly reset

TREK schedules an automatic hourly reset of the demo database. At each reset:

1. The current travel.db is replaced with the saved baseline (travel-baseline.db).
2. The admin account's credentials (password_hash, API keys, avatar) are re-applied on top of the restored baseline, so admin API keys and password changes survive the reset.

If no baseline has been saved yet, the reset is skipped and a message is logged.

Saving a baseline

The baseline is the snapshot the hourly reset restores to. The admin can update it at any time:

Endpoint: POST /admin/save-demo-baseline

This is available in the admin panel. The baseline captures the current state of the database — including trip data, settings, and encrypted API keys — so demo features (maps, photos, weather) continue to work after each reset.

On first start with demo mode active, TREK seeds three example trips (Tokyo & Kyoto, Barcelona Long Weekend, New York City) owned by the admin and shared with the demo user, then saves the initial baseline automatically.

Limitations

• Demo mode is not for production use with real user data. The hourly reset deletes all visitor-created content.
• All demo visitors share a single account — there is no isolation between sessions.
• File uploads (photos, documents, trip covers, avatars) are disabled for the demo user.

See also

• Environment-Variables
• Backups