> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mauvely.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Your Mauvely account

> What a Mauvely account unlocks, how signing in from a desktop app works, and what keeps working when you are offline.

One account covers Compose, Snap and Cloud. Sotto has no account and never asks for one.

## What needs an account

| App         | Needs an account?                                                                      |
| ----------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Compose** | Yes. The editor opens once you have signed in.                                         |
| **Cloud**   | Yes — it is where your files live.                                                     |
| **Snap**    | Only for **Send to Compose**. Capture, the library and the editor all work signed out. |
| **Sotto**   | No. There is no account system at all.                                                 |

<Note>
  Snap deliberately does not gate on sign-in. Its capture shortcut has to fire from the system tray
  with nobody signed in, and its library is a folder of your own image files — putting a login in
  front of either would be pointless.
</Note>

## Signing in from a desktop app

Compose and Snap do not ask for your password. Signing in opens your **browser**:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Choose Sign in">
    In Compose this is the sign-in screen at launch. In Snap it is the account chip in the title bar.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Approve in the browser">
    The app shows a short code and opens mauvely.com. Confirm the code matches, and complete
    sign-in there as usual — including a Google sign-in, a passkey, or your two-factor code.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Return to the app">
    The app polls until you have approved, then signs itself in. Nothing further is typed into the
    app itself.
  </Step>
</Steps>

This exists because signing in inside the app could not work properly: an account created with
"Continue with Google" has no password to type, sign-in is protected by a bot challenge, and
password accounts still have to clear two-factor authentication.

### Managing signed-in apps

Each app appears under **Devices** on your account page at mauvely.com, and can be revoked from
there. Revoking takes effect the next time that app starts up.

## Working offline

Requiring an account does not mean requiring a connection.

When an app cannot reach mauvely.com, it keeps working with the session it already has and says so
in the interface — Compose's account chip reads *Offline — couldn't reach mauvely.com*. This grace
period lasts **14 days** from the last successful check. Past that, you need to sign in again.

If the service actively rejects your session — because you revoked it, or changed your password —
the stored session is cleared immediately rather than kept for the grace period.

## Privacy of the stored session

Each app stores its session token in a single file readable only by your user account, in the
app's own data folder. It is not encrypted and it is not held in your operating system's keychain:
any program running as you can read it, in the same way it could read an SSH key. Storing it in a
per-platform secret store is a known improvement, not something in place today.

Compose and Snap keep **separate** tokens, so signing out of one does not sign out of the other.

## Your Mauvely Cloud password is different

Cloud's encryption key is derived from your account password inside your browser, and that
derivation never leaves the browser. This is why Mauvely cannot read your Cloud files even though
it holds your account.

The practical consequence: **Mauvely cannot reset your way back into your files.** If you forget
your password, your 24-word recovery phrase is the only other thing that opens them. See
[Setting up your vault](/cloud/setting-up-your-vault).