Accounts

retroBITE has its own user accounts for the web interface. You create the first one during setup and add more from the command line. There is no sign-up page and no password reset by email, because retroBITE assumes no mail server.

The SMB and FTP account consoles use is separate. It is set by AUTH_USER and AUTH_PASS in .env, as described in Configuration.

First-run setup

The first time you open retroBITE, a four-step setup walks you through the basics:

1. Account: choose the username and password for the first account.
2. Interface: color scheme, scanlines and how game pages look.
3. ScreenScraper: your ScreenScraper account, for metadata and artwork.
4. RetroAchievements: your RetroAchievements account, to sync achievements.

Every page leads to the setup until it is finished. If you close the tab part way, you continue where you left off after signing in. Once setup is finished, it cannot be opened again. Every setting it covers stays available under Settings.

Finish setup before sharing the address

Until the first account exists, the account step is open to anyone who can reach retroBITE, and whoever gets there first creates the account. Complete the setup before you make retroBITE reachable from other devices or networks.

Signing in

Sign in with your username or your email address. Accounts created during setup or from the command line are ready to use straight away.

Change your name, email address and password under Settings → User. Changing the password needs the current one.

Permissions

Every account has the same permissions. There are no roles and no read-only accounts: any signed-in user can change settings for the whole install, edit the library, run conversions and transfers, and add or edit hardware docs.

Be careful who you give an account to

An account gives full control over retroBITE and your library. Only create accounts for people you trust with that.

Managing accounts from the command line

Accounts are created and reset with retroBITE's user commands, run inside the web container from the machine that runs retroBITE. Run them from the folder with your docker-compose.yml.

If you run retroBITE from a checkout of the source repository, the ./retrobite script runs the same commands for you.

Create an account

Docker Compose

docker compose exec -u www-data retrobite-web php artisan user:create retrogamer

./retrobite

./retrobite artisan user:create retrogamer

You are asked for the password, which is not shown as you type. Leave out the username to be asked for that too.

Option	Default	What it sets
--email=	<username>@retrobite.local	The email address, which also works for signing in
--name=	the username	The display name
--password=	asked for	The password. Prefer the prompt: a password on the command line ends up in your shell history.

For example:

Docker Compose

docker compose exec -u www-data retrobite-web php artisan user:create retrogamer --email=me@example.com --name="Player One"

./retrobite

./retrobite artisan user:create retrogamer --email=me@example.com --name="Player One"

Reset a password

Docker Compose

docker compose exec -u www-data retrobite-web php artisan user:password retrogamer

./retrobite

./retrobite artisan user:password retrogamer

The argument takes a username or an email address. If nothing matches exactly, it falls back to a partial match and lets you pick when several accounts match. Leave it out to be asked. The new password is asked for without echoing, or can be passed with --password=.