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Admin Guide

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Omega (QA) edited this page Nov 10, 2026 · 1 revision

user-shield icon Admin Guide

Running a Warracker instance for other people: a household, a family, or a small team. This guide covers the admin's jobs in the order you will meet them. The Settings page remains the field by field reference for every control mentioned here, and the Multi-User Guide explains the sharing model from the users' side.

Contents

Roles at a glance

Role What they can do
Owner Everything an admin can do, plus transfer ownership. The owner cannot be demoted or deactivated. Marked with a crown in the users list.
Admin Manage users, change site settings, configure the site-wide integrations (OIDC, Paperless-ngx, Apprise), and edit, archive, or delete anyone's warranties.
Regular user Manage their own warranties, claims, documents, tags, and settings.

The first account created on a new instance automatically becomes the owner and an admin. Create your own account first, before you invite anyone else.

Set up the instance for other people

  1. Install Warracker (Getting Started) and create your account. You are now the owner.
  2. In Settings → Admin Settings → Site Settings, set the Email Base URL to the address users will actually open, so links in emails resolve correctly.
  3. Leave Registration Enabled on while your users create their accounts, then turn it off. With registration closed, only existing accounts can sign in, and the instance stays private.
  4. Decide the sharing model (next sections) and, if you use them, connect the site-wide integrations.

There is no "create user" form: accounts are made through the registration page (or through OIDC on first sign-in), and admins manage them afterwards.

Managing users

Open Settings → Admin Settings → Show Users List. The list shows every account with its username, email, Provider (Local, or the OIDC provider name), roles, and status; the owner carries a crown.

  • Edit User changes a user's Username and Email, and flips two toggles: Active Status and Admin Status.
  • Deactivate (Active Status off) when someone should stop signing in but keep their data. A deactivated user cannot sign in, and you can reactivate them at any time. Prefer this over deleting.
  • Delete User permanently removes the account and all of its data, after a confirmation. There is no undo.
  • Locked out users: password resets go through the Forgot password link on the login page, which emails a reset link. If a user never receives it, check the email address in Edit User first; a typo there is the usual cause.

Two protections are built in: you cannot change your own admin status, and the owner cannot be demoted or deactivated. To hand over control, transfer ownership first (below).

Sharing settings you control

Under Site Settings:

  • Global View Enabled lets every user see all warranties on the instance, not just their own. Other users' warranties are read-only for them, and claim documents and "other" documents are never shown to non-owners. Most households want this on; instances shared with people who should not see each other's purchases should leave it off. What users experience is covered in the Multi-User Guide.
  • Global View Admin Only restricts that shared view to admins, when global view is enabled.

Site-wide integrations

Only admins can configure these, and they apply to the whole instance:

  • OIDC single sign-on (Google, GitHub, Keycloak, and other providers), including an OIDC Admin Group whose members receive admin rights automatically on sign-in. Setup: Authentication.
  • Paperless-ngx connection: one shared Paperless instance serves every user, with per-user document ownership inside Warracker. Setup and rules: Paperless-ngx.
  • Site-wide Apprise notifications and the notification scheduler (check frequency, message prefix), alongside each user's own notification channels. See Notifications.
  • Audit trail and user management, below.

Admin actions and the audit trail

The Admin Actions row in Admin Settings runs one job per button:

  • Refresh Data reloads the admin data on the page.
  • Check Admin Status confirms your account currently holds admin privileges.
  • Show Users List opens the user management modal.
  • Test API confirms the backend responds.
  • Send Warranty Notifications runs the expiry notification job immediately, instead of waiting for the schedule. Run it after changing notification settings to confirm alerts flow.
  • Check Scheduler Status reports whether the notification scheduler is running.

The Audit Trail (Recent Changes) logs changes made by admins and users: settings changes, user edits, ownership events. When something changed and nobody remembers doing it, look there first.

Ownership

Settings → Transfer Ownership hands the instance to another admin: pick the new owner (they must already be an admin) and confirm. The transfer is final. You stay on as a regular admin, and the new owner has ultimate control, including transferring ownership onward.

Transfer ownership before you deactivate or delete your own account, and before removing admin rights from the person who should run the instance next.

Routine maintenance

  • Back up before updates. Database and uploads volume; see Backup and Restore.
  • Update on your schedule. Pin a release or follow latest; see Updating.
  • Keep registration closed once your users are in, and review the users list from time to time for accounts nobody recognises.
  • Watch the audit trail after changing site settings or roles.
  • More hardening advice: Security.

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