Start Go Loose with PostgreSQL and a stable `GO_LOOSE_SESSION_SECRET` of at least 32 characters. No OIDC environment variables or bootstrap account are required:
The Google client secret is not included in the repository and must be copied from Google Cloud Console. Go Loose validates Google OIDC discovery, encrypts the secret with AES-GCM using a key derived from `GO_LOOSE_SESSION_SECRET`, and stores only the ciphertext in PostgreSQL. Keep the session secret stable: losing it makes the installed OIDC secret undecryptable.
Installation is a one-time operation. Submitting the installer immediately starts Google login. Google redirects to `/auth/callback`, where Go Loose validates the ID token, creates a signed HTTP-only session cookie, and redirects to the management console. Browser redirects cannot carry a caller-defined `Authorization` header, so no bearer token is exposed in the URL or to frontend JavaScript.
Later requests to `/install` redirect to login, and duplicate submissions are rejected.
The first user who completes Google SSO becomes the system administrator. A PostgreSQL advisory transaction lock makes this first-user claim atomic when multiple users sign in concurrently. The system administrator receives owner access to every tenant that exists at that moment.
Owning a tenant is what lets the administrator administer it; it does not let them sign in to the applications running inside it. Access to a client application is always an explicit grant, so an administrator who wants to use one attaches themselves from **Users & access** like anybody else. The grant is visible, attributable and revocable, and revoking it signs them out of that application without affecting their console access.
Later first-time SSO users are created without tenant membership. Their management page shows only the waiting room. A system administrator approves a waiting user from **Users & access**, selecting:
- the tenant;
- tenant role (`viewer`, `admin`, or `owner`);
- the applications the user may log in to.
Tenant owners and administrators can manage users, applications, API keys, client login, and OpenAPI contracts only inside their assigned tenants. A user assigned to multiple tenants can switch the active tenant from the console header. Database membership checks—not the selector—enforce isolation.
## Optional Guess demonstration seed
The installer selects the demonstration seed by default. It creates the `nmbs` and `ypto` tenants, one `guess` application in each tenant, and these local database users:
All four users receive access only to their tenant's Guess application. Passwords are stored as Argon2id hashes; plaintext credentials are never written to PostgreSQL.
These accounts and especially `admin123` are intentionally non-production credentials. Disable the seed for production, or delete/rotate every demo account before exposing the service.
An application must first have exact redirect URIs and a generated client secret configured in the management console before `/connect/authorize` can start its login flow.
## Environment-configured compatibility mode
Existing deployments may continue to supply all three `GO_LOOSE_OIDC_ISSUER`, `GO_LOOSE_OIDC_CLIENT_ID`, and `GO_LOOSE_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET` variables. Go Loose treats that as an already configured deployment and bypasses the installer. Supplying `GO_LOOSE_LOCAL_LOGIN=true` together with a non-empty `GO_LOOSE_LOCAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD` does the same for a database-only development deployment.
For new installations, prefer the web installer. `GO_LOOSE_LOCAL_LOGIN=true` without a bootstrap password enables seeded and invited database users but does not bypass installation.
Two rules make that second mode usable rather than merely possible:
- The local administrator claims the system administrator role when the installation has none. Creating tenants and approving waiting-room users both require that role, and only a first Google sign-in otherwise grants it, so a database-only deployment would otherwise have nobody able to do either. The claim is a no-op once any system administrator exists, so an installation already owned by a Google account is untouched.
- Bootstrapping grants ownership of a tenant only while that tenant has no owner. It deliberately does not care whether the tenant has other members, because the demonstration seed creates tenants holding administrators but no owner; refusing ownership there would leave a local administrator bootstrapped afterwards with an account that can never reach the console. A tenant that already has an owner is never taken over.
Supplying `GO_LOOSE_LOCAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD` after a Google account has already claimed the role changes nothing.
## Verifying an installation
`make behaviour-test` installs the application into an empty database, signs in, walks every flow, and then restarts the process to confirm that everything was persisted rather than held in memory. See the [README](../README.md#behaviour-suite) for what it needs.
