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Sign up and invite people

AfriAnnotate accounts live on the cloud. Sign-up is a few clicks; the trickier part is who lands where, because the platform branches the experience based on whether you're invited, self-signing-up, or the first user.

Create an account​

  1. Open afriannotate.waraka.org.
  2. Type your email and click Continue.
    • If the email is known, you'll see the password prompt (sign-in mode).
    • If it's unknown, you'll be routed to the signup form.
  3. Set a password (8 characters minimum) and confirm it.
  4. Tick the cloud-storage consent box. It's mandatory: creating an account stores your email, name, and annotation work on the platform's servers, and the server refuses the signup without it.
  5. Click Create Account. AfriAnnotate sends a verification email from no-reply@label.afriannotate.org to the address you entered.
  6. Open that email and click Verify email.
  7. After the click, AfriAnnotate signs you in automatically and sends you to your landing page — no second password prompt.

Light or dark, before you sign in​

Every sign-in card (log in, sign up, forgot password and the rest) has a small theme switch at the right of its title. Each click moves between your device's own setting, light and dark. The choice is remembered on that device and is the same one as in the profile menu once you are in.

Your organisation's own sign-in​

When your organisation has connected its own sign-in, typing your email on the sign-in page offers Continue with (its name) beside the password, or takes you straight there when that is the only way in for you.

Sign in with a passkey​

If you've added a passkey to your account, the sign-in page shows a Sign in with a passkey button under the email form (on browsers with WebAuthn — it's hidden elsewhere). Click it and approve your device's prompt (fingerprint, face, PIN, or security key) instead of typing a password.

It works at either step of the email-first flow:

  • Before typing your email — your device offers the accounts it has passkeys stored for on this site.
  • After typing your email — the prompt is scoped to that account's passkeys.

Passkeys are bound to the site they were created on, so a passkey made on the cloud only works on the cloud (the desktop app keeps its own). The mobile apps support passkeys too — they run the ceremony natively (Face ID / Android Credential Manager). If the passkey prompt fails or is cancelled, the password form still works as normal.

Where you land after verifying​

AfriAnnotate routes you to one of three places depending on your situation:

A. First user on the platform → platform owner​

If you're the first user ever on the platform, AfriAnnotate:

  • Auto-creates the default organisation around you.
  • Promotes you to platform owner (is_superuser + is_staff).
  • Auto-verifies your email (no link required — there's no one to chase you up if the mail fails).
  • Sends a welcome email confirming the platform is yours to configure.

You land on the home page with Platform Settings visible in the sidebar. Rename the default org under Organization → Settings → Organization name.

B. Invited via an invite link → joined directly​

If you signed up via an invite link an admin sent you (the link contains a token, e.g. ?token=…), AfriAnnotate:

  • Creates your account.
  • Attaches you to the inviter's organisation as an Annotator (default role).
  • Sends a verify email — click the link to confirm, then you're in.

You land on the home page with the inviting org's projects visible.

C. Self-signup without an invite → no organisation yet​

If you signed up directly at afriannotate.waraka.org without an invite link, AfriAnnotate:

  • Creates your account.
  • Does not attach you to any organisation. (We deliberately don't auto-create a per-user organisation — that would let anyone with the URL spin up their own workspace.)
  • Sends the verify email.

After verifying, you land on the org-less home page ("You're not in an organization yet"). You can still:

  • See and join open public projects listed there or under Discover, and label in the ones you've joined — see No org state.
  • View / edit your profile (/users/<your-id>).
  • Change your password.
  • Sign out and back in.

You cannot see an org's private projects, members, or settings until an existing org owner/admin invites you — see Invite people below.

Invite people to your organisation​

Two ways, depending on the role and the urgency.

For onboarding many annotators at once, share an invite link. Anyone with the link can join your org.

  1. Sign in as a platform owner / admin.
  2. Open Organization → Members → Invite people.
  3. Copy the invite URL. Share it with your team (Slack, email, etc.).
  4. Recipients click the link, create their account (steps above), and land in your organisation as Annotators by default.

You can rotate the invite token (regenerate the link) any time — existing accounts stay; future joiners with the old token are rejected.

Pre-create the user (operator-driven)​

For named people who'll get a specific role, pre-create:

  1. Open Platform → Users → + Create User.
  2. Fill in name + email + (optional) starting role.
  3. Choose Invite mode — sends them a setup-link email so they can set their own password. (Choose Set password now to type it yourself if you'll hand them credentials in person.)

The user receives an email with a one-shot Set password link. The link auto-verifies their email + signs them in on the first click — they don't need to also click a separate "verify email" link.

Common gotchas​

  • The verify email didn't arrive. Check spam, then try a personal Gmail address. Corporate filters (Mimecast, university mail) often reject transactional senders. If the user is genuinely blocked, a platform owner can mark them verified manually so they can sign in.
  • The user signs in but sees "no organisation". They self-signed-up without an invite. Invite them from Organization → Members → Invite people, or pre-create them with a role from Platform → Users.
  • "Wrong account after signing out". Clear your browser session (close + reopen the tab) and sign in again with the intended account. The platform clears both the JWT in localStorage and the Django session cookie on sign-out, but a stuck browser cache can rarely still serve a stale page — a hard refresh fixes it.

What's next​