René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Feature: Single User Mode (--single-user flag)","articleBody":"## Summary\n\nAdd a `--single-user` mode for personal/mobile deployments where only one user needs access to the pod.\n\n## Motivation\n\nJSS is designed to be lightweight and run on mobile devices (Android/Termux). In many personal use cases:\n- Only one person will use the server\n- Registration should be disabled after initial setup\n- Login friction should be minimized\n- The server acts as a personal data store, not a multi-tenant service\n\n## Proposed Behavior\n\n```bash\nsandymount start --single-user\n# or\njss start --single-user\n```\n\n### First Run\n1. Create default user pod at `/` or `/me/` (configurable)\n2. Generate WebID profile\n3. Optionally prompt for username/password or generate credentials\n4. Disable registration endpoint\n\n### Subsequent Runs\n1. Skip registration UI entirely\n2. Optional: Auto-login if running locally (localhost only)\n3. Optional: Session persistence across restarts\n\n## Implementation Approach\n\n### Config Addition\n```javascript\n// config.js\nsingleUser: false,\nsingleUserPath: '/',  // or '/me/'\nsingleUserAutoLogin: false,  // localhost auto-login\n```\n\n### CLI Flags\n```\n--single-user          Enable single-user mode\n--single-user-path     Pod path (default: /)\n--auto-login           Auto-login on localhost (security consideration)\n```\n\n### Server Changes\n\n1. **On startup with `--single-user`**:\n   - Check if user pod exists at configured path\n   - If not, run first-time setup (create pod structure)\n   - Disable `/idp/register` endpoint\n   - Set `openRegistrations: false` in NodeInfo\n\n2. **Optional auto-login** (localhost only):\n   - If request from 127.0.0.1/localhost and no session\n   - Auto-authenticate as the single user\n   - Security: Only enable with explicit `--auto-login` flag\n\n## Files to Modify\n\n- `src/config.js` - Add singleUser options\n- `src/server.js` - Handle single-user initialization\n- `src/idp/index.js` - Conditionally disable registration\n- `src/idp/interactions.js` - Auto-login logic (optional)\n- `bin/jss.js` - CLI flags\n\n## Security Considerations\n\n- Auto-login should ONLY work for localhost connections\n- Clear warning in logs when auto-login is enabled\n- Single-user mode should still support proper authentication for remote access\n- Consider generating a strong random password on first run and displaying it once\n\n## Related\n\n- Sandymount mobile deployment use case\n- `--invite-only` flag (partial solution)\n- `--no-idp` flag (disables auth entirely, too extreme)\n\n## Acceptance Criteria\n\n- [ ] `--single-user` creates pod on first run\n- [ ] Registration disabled in single-user mode\n- [ ] Existing auth still works for remote access\n- [ ] Optional `--auto-login` for localhost convenience\n- [ ] Documentation updated","author":{"url":"https://github.com/melvincarvalho","@type":"Person","name":"melvincarvalho"},"datePublished":"2026-01-09T17:48:26.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":0},"url":"https://github.com/76/JavaScriptSolidServer/issues/76"}