---
name: manage-accounts
description: Use when adding, removing, or changing dashboard login accounts for Arr Summary (Media Centre), or explaining the difference between its multi-user and legacy single-shared-password login modes.
---

Two modes, chosen by whether `settings.json` holds a non-empty `users` map:

- **Multi-user** (once any account exists): username + password, each
  password stored as a salted pbkdf2 hash under `users` in `settings.json`.
  `verify_credentials()` is the only entry point; `load_users()` re-reads
  the file per check, so adding a user or changing a password is live
  immediately in every gunicorn worker — no restart, unlike the API keys.
- **Legacy single shared password** (no accounts yet): the original
  `LOGIN_PASSWORD` / `settings.json.login_password` path, username ignored.
  This fallback exists so deploying multi-user support can't lock an
  existing install out; the login page hides the username field entirely
  until accounts exist.

Manage accounts with `manage_users.py`, which prompts for passwords
(never echoed, never a CLI argument, so they stay out of shell history)
and only ever writes hashes:

```bash
docker exec -it arr-summary python3 manage_users.py list
docker exec -it arr-summary python3 manage_users.py add <username>
docker exec -it arr-summary python3 manage_users.py passwd <username>
docker exec -it arr-summary python3 manage_users.py remove <username>
```

**Adding the first account switches the whole dashboard to per-user
logins and the shared password stops working** — verify you can sign in
as that user before closing the shell. `remove` refuses to delete the
last account for the same reason.

Users live in `settings.json` rather than an env var deliberately: a
pbkdf2 hash contains `$`, which docker compose interpolates when reading
`.env`. `PASSWORD_HASH_METHOD` is pinned to pbkdf2 rather than Werkzeug's
default scrypt, which needs a hashlib built against OpenSSL and is absent
on the macOS system Python.