First login

The bootstrap credentials

On first run, Exolvra creates a single admin account and prints its password to the terminal where the gateway is running. The line looks like this:

[Exolvra] Bootstrap admin created. Username: admin
[Exolvra] Bootstrap password: ••••••••••••••••
[Exolvra] Change this password from Profile → Security on first login.

Copy the password — it won’t be shown again. If you miss it, stop the gateway, delete the file ~/.exolvra/exolvra.db, and start it fresh to get a new one. (That wipes the database, so only do it on a brand-new install.)

Open http://localhost:5079/, enter admin and the bootstrap password, and click Sign in.

The setup wizard

On a fresh instance you’ll land on the onboarding wizard — four short steps that take about two minutes. You can skip it at any point with the Skip setup link in the top right; every choice is editable later from Config.

Step 1 — About you

Enter your display name, your role, and a short description of how you want agents to communicate with you (formal, casual, terse, collaborative). Agents use this to tune their tone. It’s stored on your profile and can be changed later from Profile → About you.

Step 2 — Pick a model provider

Choose one LLM provider and paste an API key:

You need at least one provider for any agent to run. You can add more from Config → AI Providers at any time. If you want to be frugal, Ollama gives you a free local option with no cost tracking.

Step 3 — Set a daily budget

Budget is one of the first things to configure. Enter a daily limit in US dollars. When the daily spend crosses that number, Exolvra stops sending new LLM calls until the clock rolls over.

Recommended defaults for a personal install: $5/day. For a team: $50/day and tune up from there. You can also set a monthly cap and per-session warnings later from Config → Budget & Security.

Step 4 — Review

The last step shows a summary of what you chose. Click Finish and you land on the dashboard home.

Change your admin password

The first thing to do after finishing the wizard is change the bootstrap password. Open Profile from the avatar menu in the top right, go to the Security tab, and pick a new password. Exolvra logs you out; sign back in with the new password to confirm it took.

If something goes wrong

You never see the bootstrap password in the terminal. The gateway probably started in a process with its output going elsewhere — check ~/.exolvra/logs/ (if present) or start the gateway in the foreground so stdout prints to your terminal.

You signed in but can’t reach the dashboard — you see “Setup required” or an error page. Hit /setup directly — some installs land there before the main dashboard is reachable.

The setup wizard won’t save. Usually this means no provider is configured. Go back to step 2 and add a real API key, or select Ollama and leave the base URL at the default.

You lost your admin password. Stop the gateway, open a terminal in the repo, and run:

dotnet run --project src/Exolvra.Gateway -- --reset-admin-password

This prints a fresh bootstrap password and updates the database. Start the gateway normally and log in.

Next

• Your first agent — start using the dashboard
• Admin overview — the post-install hardening checklist