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FAQ

Common questions, especially the ones that come up during onboarding. If your situation isn't here, check Troubleshooting or open an issue at https://github.com/warakacommunity/afriannotate/issues.

Email + sign-in​

I signed up but never got the verification email​

The verification email is sent immediately at signup, from no-reply@label.afriannotate.org. If it doesn't arrive within a minute or two:

  1. Check spam. Some inboxes route transactional mail there reflexively.
  2. Confirm DNS is healthy by signing up with a personal Gmail address. If Gmail receives the email, the platform's infrastructure is fine and your original recipient is the problem.
  3. Corporate filter blocking the sender is the most common reason for "Gmail works, my work email doesn't". University and corporate gateways (Mimecast, Microsoft ATP, Cisco IronPort) often reject mail from any shared transactional sender, regardless of correct SPF / DKIM / DMARC.

If it's a corporate block, your platform owner can mark you verified manually so you can sign in, while you sort out the longer-term fix (ask your IT to allowlist the sender domain of no-reply@label.afriannotate.org).

I verified my email but still see the "Check your inbox" page​

The platform should redirect you automatically when you click the verification link in the email. If the page still shows after a click:

  • Reload the page. The middleware that bounces unverified users to this page checks the database on every request — a successful verify flips the flag instantly.
  • You're logged in as a different user. The page shows the email of whichever account is currently signed in. If the verify link was for you@example.com but the browser session was already signed in to other@example.com, the verify click force-logged you out and signed you in as you@example.com — but the rendered page might briefly still show stale state. Reload.

Sign-out doesn't always work / takes two clicks​

This was a real bug fixed in v0.1.x (revision afri-cloud-00028-xmq, 2026-05-05). The previous logout cleared the JWT in localStorage but not the Django session cookie, so the next /api/whoami would still return the stale session-authed user and the SPA showed "still signed in". The fix: every sign-out now fetches /logout (which kills the session cookie) AND clears the JWT, in that order, then hard-navigates to login.

If you still see this symptom on the current version, hard-refresh (Cmd-Shift-R / Ctrl-Shift-R) to bypass the cached SPA bundle. If it persists, file an issue.

Organisation membership​

I'm signed in but see "You're not a member of any organisation"​

You self-signed-up without an invite link, so the platform created your account but didn't attach you to any organisation. You can still work: your home page lists open public projects — join one and start contributing immediately. To get into a team organisation:

  • Ask an existing platform owner or admin of the org you want to join to invite you from Organization → Members → Invite people.
  • Open an invite link they send you in the same browser — it'll attach the link's organisation to your existing account, no re-signup needed.

This is intentional: we don't auto-create a per-user organisation, because doing so would let anyone with the URL spin up their own private workspace and quietly use compute / storage.

I was in an org before but now see "You were removed from X"​

A platform owner / admin of the organisation removed your membership. The page names which org. Options:

  • Ask an admin of that org to re-invite you.
  • Open an invite link to a different organisation on the same device — your account picks up the new membership.

Soft-deleted memberships are kept in the database for the audit log; "removed" means your OrganizationMember row was soft-deleted, not hard-deleted.

Projects​

The "Save" button is greyed out in the project create wizard​

The wizard refuses to save when:

  • The project name is empty.
  • A CSV was uploaded and you haven't picked how to treat it (List of tasks vs Time Series).
  • The uploaded data is missing required fields the label config expects. Hover the Save button — the tooltip names the missing fields (e.g. $image, $text). Either upload data that has those columns OR adjust the labeling config.

The "Data Import" tab is disabled​

You haven't selected a labeling configuration yet. Pick one from the Labeling Setup tab first; the Data Import tab activates as soon as the project has a non-empty config.

Mobile​

Where do I get the Android app​

The reference cloud distributes via Firebase App Distribution. Ask your platform owner to add you to the testers group; you'll receive an email with an install link. Other hosters may use the Play Store, a private MDM, or a direct APK side-load — check with your platform owner. See Install the mobile app for the full flow.

Does the mobile app work offline​

Yes, offline-first. Reads are answered from an on-device IndexedDB mirror (projects you've downloaded for offline, plus cached API responses and task media), so pages open without network. Writes (annotations, drafts) that fail while offline queue in a local outbox and replay automatically on reconnect — with exponential backoff, a per-row unique_id so the cloud dedupes replays, and a dead-letter store for replays the cloud rejects. A signed-in phone stays usable offline until its refresh token expires (30 days by default). See Install the mobile app and the offline plan for the design.

API + integrations​

Where's my Personal Access Token​

Profile → Security & access → Manage tokens (the Settings tab is retired; old links redirect). This is a JWT-based token system — you hold one active personal token at a time, with a Full access or Read-only scope chosen at creation. Expiry isn't user-selectable: the token lives until you delete or regenerate it. Use it as Authorization: Bearer <token> in any API call.

We used to also show a "Legacy Token" card (a single static DRF-style hex token) but removed it in 2026-05 because it duplicated visually with the JWT one. The underlying GET /api/current-user/token endpoint stays live for backward compatibility with existing integrations, but new code should use the JWT token system.

How do I rotate / revoke a token​

In the same tokens modal: Regenerate… revokes the current token and immediately reopens the password-gated create form for its replacement; Delete is two-click (first click arms it, second deletes). Either way the old token stops working immediately.

What's the rate limit on the API​

Anonymous endpoints (/api/auth/account-status, /api/auth/forgot-password, /api/auth/resend-verification) are rate-limited per (IP, email) with exponential backoff — first retry after 15-60s depending on the endpoint, doubling per attempt up to 30 min. Authenticated endpoints have no explicit per-second cap but are subject to the hoster's per-process concurrency limit (~80 in-flight requests on the reference cloud).

Platform admin​

How do I rename the platform / change branding​

Platform → Branding. Rename here propagates to:

  • The browser tab title
  • The "Sign in to X" copy on the login page
  • The "Welcome to X" greeting on the home page
  • Verification + welcome emails

The DNS-level domain (afriannotate.waraka.org) doesn't change — that's the cloud's address, not your platform's display name.

Can I disable the legacy DRF Token UI everywhere​

It's already hidden from the profile page's token UI (2026-05). The endpoint GET /api/current-user/token is still live for existing integrations.

Pricing + access​

Is there a free tier​

AfriAnnotate is currently in early access. There's no public pricing page yet. Reach out at https://github.com/warakacommunity/afriannotate/issues if you'd like to evaluate the platform with your team.