Revue account

A Revue account is optional. Without one, each computer signs in on its own, as always. With one, a new computer needs only your Revue account's email and password: every account you keep in it appears, working.

It's end-to-end encrypted. Revue encrypts your sign-ins on your computer before they leave it, with a key made from your password. Revue's server keeps only what it can't read: never your password, your tokens, or even which services you use.

Create an account#

1. Open Settings → Accounts. The Revue account card is first.
2. Click Create a Revue account.
3. Type your email and a password of 12 characters or more. Your computer's name is filled in; change it if you like. Mails from the account come in Revue's language.
4. Click Create account. A 6-digit code arrives by mail. Type it and click Confirm. (No mail? Send again. The code works for 15 minutes.)
5. Revue shows your recovery key: RVK1- and 14 groups of letters and digits. Copy it or Save to file…, keep it somewhere safe, apart from this computer, then tick I've kept it somewhere safe and click Continue. When the account server offers passkeys, you can Add a passkey under the key first (optional; see Passkeys).
6. Move your sign-ins to your Revue account? lists this computer's sign-ins, all ticked. Click Move, or Not now to keep them here.

Sign in on another computer#

1. Start Revue. On the welcome screen, click Have a Revue account? Sign in to it instead. (or open Settings → Accounts and click Sign in to Revue).
2. Type your email and password, and click Sign in.
3. If you turned on two-step sign-in, type the code from your authenticator app (or a backup code) and click Sign in again.

Every sign-in kept in the account appears, and the pull request list fills. Your mailbox gets a note that a new computer signed in.

With a passkey added (below), click Sign in with a passkey instead: no email or password needed when the passkey can unlock your accounts. With two-step sign-in on, Use a passkey instead stands in for the authenticator code.

Sign in with browser#

Sign in with browser signs this computer in through your account's page in the browser, without typing your email or password into Revue. Check the name under This computer, then click it: your browser opens the account server's page (sign in there first if it asks). It asks whether to sign Revue in on that computer, by its name. Click Approve and type your password (and your authenticator code, with two-step sign-in on): the browser opens your accounts with it and hands their key to Revue encrypted, so the server never sees the password or the key. Revue goes on by itself. Cancel on the page, or in Revue, stops it; if the browser can't get back to Revue, paste the address it ended on into the field Revue shows.

The page is the account server's, so the first time with a server other than Revue's own, Revue names it and asks once, as for passkeys. The computer shows in your list of computers like any other, and your mailbox gets the usual note.

Passkeys#

A passkey on your phone, computer or security key can sign you in to your Revue account. Revue opens a page of your account server in your browser, which asks for the passkey (your fingerprint, face or PIN), then comes back to Revue by itself. If the browser can't get back, paste the address it ended on into the field Revue shows. Cancel stops waiting.

Add one under your recovery key when you create the account, or later under Security… → Passkeys → Add a passkey…: name it, confirm with your password (or another passkey), and use the passkey in the browser. Revue says what it can do:

Each is listed with when it was added and last used. Rename it, or Remove… it (confirmed with your password or a passkey). Security changes offer Confirm with a passkey next to the password. Making a new vault key needs your password; the passkey that confirmed it keeps unlocking, and the others can unlock again once they confirm something on a computer signed in, or sign in on one together with your password.

Passkeys are shown only when the account server offers them.

What's kept in the account#

Once you're signed in to your Revue account:

• New sign-ins go to it. Sign in to a service on any computer, and it reaches the others within a few minutes (at once when you switch to Revue). Turn off Keep new sign-ins in my Revue account on the card to keep new ones on this computer only.
• Each sign-in says where it lives, under its row in each service's card (GitHub, Bitbucket, Forgejo, Jira, Slack): In your Revue account, or This computer only.
• Signing out of a service that's in the account signs every computer out of it. Revue asks first: Sign out of … on all your computers?
• Signing in again after a lost sign-in fixes it on every computer.
• Renewed tokens are shared. Jira, Forgejo and Slack sign-ins get new tokens about every hour, and their refresh tokens work only once. One computer renews, the others use its new tokens, so they never sign each other out.
• Bitbucket workspaces and Jira projects you picked come along with the sign-in.

Move my sign-ins… on the card lists this computer's sign-ins (tick them to move them into the account) and the account's (each with Move to this computer only, which signs your other computers out of it).

Sign-ins from the gh CLI, GITHUB_TOKEN or REVUE_GITHUB_TOKEN stay on their computer: they come from its environment. A GitHub token saved by an old version of Revue, without knowing whose it is, can't move until you sign in to it again.

Settings and favourites#

Two switches on the card, off until you turn them on, each for this computer:

• Sync settings: your settings and Slack message formats follow you to every computer. The first time you turn it on, if the account already has settings from another computer, Revue asks: Use the account's (this computer takes them; settings only this computer has go to the account) or Keep this computer's (they go to the account, and from there to your other computers).
• Sync favourites: starred pull requests, repositories and projects. Turned on, this computer's stars and the account's are put together; nothing is asked.

Changes travel setting by setting, so two computers changing different settings at the same time both keep their change. A star and an unstar of the same thing on two computers: the later one wins.

What never syncs: settings you switched to This computer (they stay as they are here, and another computer's value doesn't replace them), where tokens are kept, clone folders, the editor and Slack apps, a language server's own program, the account server, Revue's state (tabs, recent items) and caches. The rules are the same as for Export settings (see Files, sync and settings for one computer).

Files attached to Slack message formats sync with the settings, each on its own, up to about 3 MB. A larger one stays on the computer it was attached on: Revue says so when you attach it, and the card names it. If you keep Slack messages for this computer only, its attachments stay here too.

With settings sync on, you don't need to sync the config folder yourself for settings.

Offline#

Everything in the account is kept on each computer too, so Revue starts and works without the network, or with the server down. Changes you make meanwhile wait, and go out when the server answers again. The card says Offline: last synced ….

Signing out#

Sign out on the card signs this computer out of your Revue account. The account's sign-ins leave this computer; they stay in the account and on your other computers. Revue doesn't sign you out of the services themselves: your other computers still use those sign-ins.

Forgot your password#

On the sign-in form, click Forgot password?, type your email and click Send code. Type the code from the mail (and your authenticator code, if two-step sign-in is on), then choose how to keep your sign-ins:

Then type a new password and click Reset password. Every other computer is signed out, and your mailbox gets a note.

After starting over, a computer that still has the old sign-ins offers, when you sign in there with the new password, Restore … sign-ins from this computer into your Revue account?

Computers, security, activity#

The card's buttons, once signed in:

• Computers… lists every computer signed in, with its system, Revue version and when it was last seen. Rename one, or Remove a computer you lost: it's signed out at once. Revue then offers Make a new vault key…, which encrypts everything in the account again so the removed computer's copy of the key opens nothing new. What a lost computer already had stays on it: revoke those tokens on each service if it was stolen.
• Security…:
  • Change email…: type your password and the new address; a code goes to it, and once you type it the account moves there (your old address gets a note). Mails come in sets the language of the account's mails.
  • Change password… (your other computers are signed out, and ask for the new one).
  • Two-step sign-in: Turn on… shows a QR code and its secret for your authenticator app, asks for its first code, then shows 10 backup codes. Each backup code works once. New backup codes… makes a new set, Turn off… turns it off.
  • Make a new recovery key… in place of the old one.
  • Encrypted backup… saves revue-account.json: everything in the account, still encrypted. Readable export… saves what's in it, decrypted, without tokens unless you tick Include tokens.
  • Delete Revue account… deletes it, on every computer. Each computer signed in asks whether to keep its sign-ins on it only.
• Activity… lists sign-ins, failed sign-ins, removed computers and security changes, with the computer and network.
• Sync now gets what changed in the account at once, without waiting for the next sync: say, a sign-in you just added, reconnected or removed in the browser. The card says when it last synced, with a green dot while it's in step.
• Manage in browser opens your account's page on its server (https://revue.cleangame.dev/account on Revue's), where you can create an account and manage it the same way from any browser. A browser signed in there shows in Computers… as a web browser, and can be removed like a computer.

Changing your password, two-step sign-in or recovery key, passkeys, and deleting the account, ask for your password again (and your authenticator code, if it's on), or a passkey.

If a computer is signed out#

The card says so:

• This computer was signed out of your Revue account: it was removed from another computer, or the password was reset. Its sign-ins are kept aside: Sign in again to put them back, Keep on this computer to keep them here only, or Remove them.
• Your Revue account was deleted: Keep on this computer or Remove them.
• Signed out on this computer after 90 days unused: its sign-ins still work. Sign in again to keep them in step.
• Your Revue account's key changed on another computer (it started over, or made a new vault key): Sign in again.

Another account server#

Revue uses its own server, revue.cleangame.dev, unless you choose another. To use one you run (see Self-hosting revue-server), open Settings → Accounts, unfold Advanced, type its address under Revue account server and click Use. Built-in goes back to Revue's. It's a setting of this computer only, changed while signed out.

The card isn't shown when there's no account server, or the server doesn't host accounts.

With --immutable#

A trial run (revue --immutable) uses the account as it is, but what you change stays in the trial run: sign-ins, sign-outs, moves. Renewed tokens still go to the account for real, since the service no longer takes the old ones. Creating, signing in to or out of the account, and security changes aren't available.

How it's kept safe#

• Your password never leaves your computer. Revue turns it into keys with Argon2id (64 MiB, 3 passes): one proves your password to the server, the other unlocks your sign-ins and stays on your computer.
• Every sign-in is encrypted with XChaCha20-Poly1305 and padded, so the server can't tell a token from an OAuth sign-in by its size, nor which service it's for.
• Each computer keeps the account's copy in the same place as its own tokens (Settings → Storage → Where tokens are kept): a file only you can read, or your system's credential store. Never in the config folder you might sync.
• A server that tries to hand back an older copy of a sign-in is refused.
• Account servers must use https:// (plain http:// only on your own computer).

More: Privacy and security.