Administration

Holarch has two administrator roles. Site admins run the whole service from the Admin page: they manage every account, project and organization, invite people, and review storage, AI use and the audit log. Org admins manage one organization (a class or a team) from Organization Settings: its members, its AI keys and whether AI may be used in its projects.

Neither role gives access to project content. Administrators see names, members, sizes and dates; to open a project, an owner has to share it with them.

Concepts

How to use it

When and why

Administration sits outside the systems engineering lifecycle. Use it to:

• set up the people who work in Holarch before a project or a class starts (invitations, organizations, org admins);
• keep AI under control for a class or a team (organization keys, the AI switch, usage by member);
• respond to requests: a forgotten password, a person who left, a project whose only owner is gone, an erasure request;
• check the health of the service (storage against the limit, AI tokens this month, the running version) and investigate events in the audit log.

Open the Admin page

1. Click your initials at the right of the top bar.
2. Choose Admin (site admins) or Organization Settings (org admins). Result: the page opens with the tabs Users, Projects, Organizations, Usage, Audit and Invitations (site admins) or only your organizations (org admins).

You can also press ⌘K and type Admin. Site admins get Admin, Admin: Users, Admin: Projects, Admin: Organizations, Admin: Audit Log and Invite People…; org admins get Organization Settings. Site admins also find Invite People and Open Admin under Administration on the Account page.

Invite a new person

Sign-up is by invitation.

1. Open Admin → Invitations.
2. Enter the email address under Invite people. Tick Site admin to make the person a site admin when the account is created.
3. Click Send Invitation. Result: “Invitation sent to …”. The person gets an email with a link to create an account. The link is valid for 7 days. The invitation appears in the list below with its expiry date.

To give someone a project, use Share in that project instead. To add someone to an organization, use the organization's Members list; people without an account get an invitation that adds them when they sign up.

Set up a class or a team

1. Open Admin → Organizations and click New Organization….
2. Enter the Name (for example SYSE 682 Fall 2026). Under Org admin (email of an existing account), enter the instructor's or team lead's email, or leave it empty to administer the organization yourself.
3. Click Create. Result: “Organization “…” created.” and the organization's details open in the inspector.
4. Under Members, enter each email address, choose Member or Org admin, and click Add Member. Result: an existing account is added at once (“… added.”). Any other address gets an invitation (“Invitation sent to …. They join when they create their account.”) listed under Pending invitations.
5. Decide on AI: leave Allow AI in this organization's projects ticked, or clear it to turn AI off (see below).
6. Ask the org admin to add an organization AI key on the Account page under Organizations → Organization keys, if members should use AI without their own keys.
7. Ask each project owner to choose the organization in the project's Share dialog under Organization.

Turn AI off for an organization

1. Open the organization (site admins: Admin → Organizations, then the row; org admins: Organization Settings, then the row).
2. Clear Allow AI in this organization's projects.
3. Confirm Turn AI Off in the dialog. Result: “AI turned off for ….” Every AI request for the organization's projects is refused on the server, also with a member's own key, and the organization's keys are not used. In those projects the ✦ AI control is off and shows “AI is turned off for this organization by its administrator.”

Tick the box again to turn AI back on (“AI turned on for ….”).

Help a person who cannot sign in

1. Open Admin → Users and type part of the name or email in Search name or email.
2. Click the row. The details open in the inspector.
3. Check Status and Email verified:
   • Disabled: click Enable to let the person sign in again.
   • Email verified: No: click Resend Verification.
   • Forgotten password: click Send Password Reset and confirm. The link goes to the person's email address, works once and is valid for 1 hour. Administrators never see or set passwords.

A person leaves

1. Open the person in Admin → Users.
2. Click Delete User….
3. For each project the person owns alone, choose Move to the Trash or Transfer to… and enter the email of the new owner.
4. Type the person's email address to confirm, then click Delete User. Result: “User deleted. The account is purged on ….” The person is signed out at once and cannot sign in. Shared projects keep their other owners and members. The account can be restored for 30 days with Restore Account; it comes back disabled.

To stop someone temporarily instead, use Disable…: sessions end, projects and data stay.

Give an orphaned project a new owner

1. Open Admin → Projects and search for the project by name or id, or filter by person.
2. Click the row, then Transfer Ownership….
3. Enter the New owner and choose what the Current owners afterwards become: Editor, Viewer, Owner (keep) or No access.
4. Click Transfer. Result: “… is now an owner of “…”.” The new owner is added to the project if they were not a member.

Worked example: a class using the CubeSat EO-1 demo

An instructor runs a systems engineering class in which each team builds on the CubeSat EO-1 demo project.

1. The site admin invites the instructor from Admin → Invitations and creates the organization EO-1 Design Class with the instructor as Org admin.
2. The instructor opens Organization Settings, adds the students' email addresses as Member, and adds an Anthropic key under Account Settings → Organizations → Organization keys with a Monthly limit (tokens) of 2,000,000.
3. Each team lead creates the demo (Manage Projects → Project Files ▾ → Create Demo Project), shares it with the team, and chooses EO-1 Design Class under Share → Organization.
4. Students without their own key now use the organization key, for example to run Make Measurable… on requirement 2.5 Safe Mode Recovery. The instructor sees the requests under Usage this month by member.
5. Before the exam, the instructor clears Allow AI in this organization's projects. AI requests in the class projects are refused until it is ticked again.
6. The site admin checks Admin → Usage for AI tokens this month and File storage, and filters Admin → Projects by Organization to see every class project with its size and last activity.

Tips and common mistakes

• Membership is not access. Adding a person to an organization does not share any project with them. Share projects separately.
• Projects join an organization from the Share dialog. Admins cannot attach a project to an organization; a project owner chooses it under Share → Organization.
• Keep two site admins. Holarch refuses to remove, disable or delete the last active site admin. Make a second account a site admin first.
• Transfer before deleting. Projects that the person owns alone go to the Trash unless you transfer them in the delete dialog.
• Use Delete Permanently Now only for erasure requests and abuse. It skips the 30-day grace period and cannot be undone.
• Change your own account on the Account page. The Admin page does not offer Disable or Delete for yourself.

How it connects to other features

• Collaboration covers project sharing and roles (Owner, Editor, Viewer), which are separate from site and org administration.
• AI explains organization keys, which key is used, usage and the effect of the organization AI switch.
• Your account covers sign-in, verification and password reset from the person's side.
• Storage and limits explains the storage figures shown on the Usage tab.

The Admin page

The page header shows Admin and the running release (Holarch <version> · <build>). The tabs are links (#/admin/users, #/admin/projects, #/admin/orgs, #/admin/usage, #/admin/audit, #/admin/invites). Lists are loaded page by page from the server, 50 rows at a time, with ‹ Previous and Next › and a count such as 1–50 of 312. Click a row, or focus it and press Enter, to show its details in the inspector.

People who are neither site admins nor org admins see “This page is for administrators.” with “Ask a site administrator for access.”

Users tab

Filters

Columns

Name, Email, Status (Active, Disabled, Deleted), Site admin, Verified (Yes, or a No chip), Created, Last sign-in (or Never), Projects (n owned · n member), Storage and AI tokens (month).

When nothing matches: “No users match.” with “Change the search or the filters.”

User details (inspector)

Facts: Status, Site admin, Email verified, Created, Last sign-in, Signed-in devices, Projects (owned and as member), Storage (project data and files), AI tokens this month, Organizations (with the role in each), Data restriction confirmed (the date the person accepted the data policy, or No), and for deleted accounts Deleted and Purged on.

Below the actions, Projects this person owns alone lists those projects with their member counts; each name opens the project in the Projects tab.

User actions

A disabled person who tries to sign in sees “This account is disabled. Contact the administrator.”

Delete User

The Delete User dialog says: “… is signed out and cannot sign in. The account is deleted for good after 30 days; until then it can be restored. Shared projects keep their other owners and members.”

• Projects this person owns alone. For each project (with its member count), choose Move to the Trash or Transfer to…, which shows an Email of the new owner field. When there are none: “This person owns no projects alone.”
• Type <email> to confirm. Delete User stays off until the address matches.

Toast: “User deleted. The account is purged on <date>.”

Delete User Permanently

For erasure requests and abuse. The Danger zone says: “For erasure requests and abuse. Deletes the account and the data you choose at once, without the 30-day grace period.”

The dialog states: “This cannot be undone. The account of … is deleted now, together with: their sessions and sign-in links, their memberships in projects and organizations, pending invitations they sent or received, their AI keys and their clipart library.” and “Projects chosen for deletion and their attachments are deleted for good. Kept: AI usage records without a link to the person, the audit log (with the person's id and name), and backups until they expire within 30 days. The email address can be invited again.”

1. For each project the person owns alone, choose Delete permanently or Transfer to….
2. Projects of the person that are already in the Trash are listed as “Also deleted for good from the Trash: …”.
3. For each organization the person administers alone, enter the Email of the new administrator.
4. Type the email address to confirm and click Delete Permanently.

Toast: “User deleted permanently.”

Projects tab

Filters

View Projects in a user's details and Show All Projects in an organization's details open this tab with the filter set.

Columns

Name, Owner, Members, Organization, Size (project data), Files (attachments), Last activity, Status (Active or In the Trash).

When nothing matches: “No projects match.” with “Change the search or the filters.” (or “This person has no projects that match the filters.”).

Project details and actions

Facts: Status (Active, or In the Trash since …), Owner, Members, Organization, Project data, Files, Items, Created, Last activity, Pending invitations, and the Members list with each role. The note says: “Site admins see project metadata only. To open the content, an owner has to share the project with you.”

Organizations tab

Site admins

Search organizations filters the list; New Organization… creates one. Columns: Name, Members, Org admins, Projects, AI keys, AI (On or Off), AI tokens (month), Created. With none: “No organizations.” and “Create one for a class or a team with New Organization.”

The New Organization dialog: “An organization groups people for a class or a team. Its org admins manage members, organization AI keys and whether AI may be used in its projects.” Fields: Name (up to 100 characters) and Org admin (email of an existing account) (“Leave empty to administer it yourself”).

Organization details

Remove asks “Remove … from …? They lose the organization's AI keys. Project access does not change.” Changing a role shows “… is now Member.” or “… is now Org admin.”

Organization Settings (org admins)

Org admins who are not site admins see the same page titled Organization Settings, with only their organizations: “Organizations you administer. Turn AI on or off for their projects, and manage members.” Columns: Name, Your role, AI. The details offer the AI switch, Members, Add Member and Pending invitations as above. “Org admins manage this organization's members, invitations and AI setting. They have no access to other organizations or to site administration.”

Organization keys and usage by member are on the Account page under Organizations: Organization keys (add, test, remove), Members and Usage this month by member (Member, Requests, Tokens, Cost (estimate), with a total). See AI.

Usage tab

Below the tiles, Most storage and Most AI tokens this month list the top accounts (click a row for the user's details). The note says: “File storage counts each stored file once. Project data is the size of the projects themselves. Costs are estimates from list prices; providers bill the key owners.”

Audit tab

The audit log lists events newest first, 50 per page, with ‹ Newer and Older ›.

Filters: Filter by person (email), Action and the From and To dates (both inclusive).

Columns: Time, Action (an action code such as admin.user-disable), By (email, or System), Target, Project, Address, Browser, Details. With no results: “No events match.” and “Change the filters.”

Invitations tab

“Sign-up is by invitation. The invited person gets a link to create an account (valid 7 days). To give someone a project, use Share in that project instead; to add someone to an organization, use its Members list.”

• Email address, Site admin and Send Invitation. An empty address shows “Enter an email address.”
• The list of pending account invitations shows each address, administrator for site-admin invitations, who sent it and the expiry date. Revoke asks “The link sent to … stops working.” and shows “Invitation revoked.” With none: “No pending account invitations.”

Shortcuts

Messages

Limits

• Lists load 50 rows per page; the Organization filter lists the first 200 organizations by name.
• The password check lasts 10 minutes per session.
• Account invitations are valid for 7 days; password reset links for 1 hour.
• Deleted accounts can be restored for 30 days.
• Backups expire within 30 days. The audit log is kept for 400 days.
• Organization names are up to 100 characters.

Related pages

• Collaboration
• AI
• Your account
• Storage and limits
• Help: Administering Holarch, Organization Settings