# Accounts and sign-in

How to sign up and sign in, how your handle is chosen, and what needs an account or contributor access.

Source: https://rack-maker.cbnsndwch.dev/docs/getting-started/accounts

## Signing up and signing in

Use **Sign in** at the top right of any page. On your first visit, the welcome on [Projects](https://rack-maker.cbnsndwch.dev/) also offers **Sign up** and **Sign in**. Both open a sign-in window where you create an account or sign in to one.

Once you are signed in, your handle shows at the top right as `@handle`, next to your account menu. Sign out from that menu.

![The site's header, with the Projects, Catalog, Credits and Docs links on the left and the handle @ana with the account menu on the right](https://rack-maker.cbnsndwch.dev/docs/shots/getting-started/signed-in-light.webp)

*Signed in: your handle and your account menu at the top right.*

A sign-in lasts 30 days on each browser. After that, sign in again.

## Your handle

When you first sign in, Rack Maker gives you a handle made from the username on your account, or from the part of your email address before the `@`. Handles are lower case, 2 to 32 letters, digits and dashes. If the handle is already taken, a number is added, such as `alice-2`.

Your handle is also your **namespace** in the catalog. Parts and devices you make are saved as `handle/…`, and only you can change them. See [Namespaces](https://rack-maker.cbnsndwch.dev/docs/catalog/namespaces).

Rack Maker has no setting to change your handle.

## What needs an account

| What                                                           | Needs                                            |
| -------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| Browse and search the [catalog](https://rack-maker.cbnsndwch.dev/catalog)                      | Nothing                                          |
| Open a project by its id or link, and edit it                  | Nothing                                          |
| Open a read-only link                                          | Nothing                                          |
| Export a project, its CSVs and its STLs                        | Nothing                                          |
| Try the [device modeler](https://rack-maker.cbnsndwch.dev/catalog/model)                       | Nothing: your work is kept in this browser only  |
| Create, duplicate or import a project                          | An account                                       |
| Claim a project and hand out a read-only link                  | An account                                       |
| Save modeler drafts to your account and submit them for review | An account                                       |
| Fork a catalog entry, or report one                            | An account                                       |
| Keep a private copy of a datasheet with a device               | An account                                       |
| Connect your own [AI agent](https://rack-maker.cbnsndwch.dev/docs/agents)                      | An account                                       |
| Publish to the catalog, upload model files, add listings       | [Contributor access](https://rack-maker.cbnsndwch.dev/docs/catalog/contributing) |

## Contributor access

Anyone signed in can draft parts and devices and use them in their own projects right away. To publish them for everyone, you either submit them for review, or ask for contributor access.

Contributors can also upload model files with their licence and credits, and add where to buy things, with prices and stock. Ask for access on the [Catalog](https://rack-maker.cbnsndwch.dev/catalog) page: say what you'd like to add, and an admin reads the request. The answer shows on the same page. See [Contributing](https://rack-maker.cbnsndwch.dev/docs/catalog/contributing).

![The Contributor access card on the Catalog page, with a box to say what you would like to add and the Ask for contributor access button](https://rack-maker.cbnsndwch.dev/docs/shots/catalog/contribute-light.webp)

*Ask for contributor access on the Catalog page.*

## The catalog terms

The first time you submit or publish something to the catalog, Rack Maker asks you to agree that your catalog contributions are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence (CC BY-SA 4.0): anyone may use, change and share them, crediting you, under the same licence. Model files you attach keep their own licence.

You are asked once. See [Licences and credits](https://rack-maker.cbnsndwch.dev/docs/catalog/licences-and-credits).