= The console
:nav-title: The Console
:description: A tour of the console: organizations, services, and the sections of a service from data to users, integrations and AI. What each one does and where to find it.
:keywords: console, dashboard, manage backend, organization, service, team, billing, MongoDB console
:group: Start
:order: 40

Everything about your backend is set from the console at https://cloud.restheart.com. Nothing here needs code, and what you save is live at once.

== Organizations and services

An **organization** groups services, people and billing. You get one when you sign up, and a team can share it.

image::/assets/docs-images/organization.png[An organization in the console: your role, the team, the services, and quick actions]

* **Overview**: your role, the team, the services, and a jump to each of them.
* **Services**: the list, and **Create Service**.
* **Team**: invite people and give each a role.
* **Billing**: subscriptions, invoices and payment methods. Billing is per organization, not per service.
* **Settings**: the organization's name and options.

A **service** is one backend: one address, with its own users, data and settings. Open one and the sidebar changes to the sections below.

image::/assets/docs-images/service-sidebar.png[A service in the console, with the sidebar groups Data, Users and access, Integrations and AI]

== The sections of a service

[cols="1,3"]
|===
| Section | What it is for

| **Overview**
| Status, the two credentials, the Kit snippet for your framework, and shortcuts.

| **Monitor**
| Requests, response times and errors over time.

| **Connect**
| The address and the credentials: the root password and the Admin JWT. See xref:root-user-setup.adoc[The root user].

| **API Tutorial**
| Six requests run against your own service, one click each: from the first `GET` to a user with a permission.

| **Settings**
| Name, tier, and the service's lifecycle.

2+| **Data**

| Collections
| Browse, create, edit and delete collections and documents. xref:managing-data.adoc[Collections and documents]

| Aggregations
| Pipelines defined once, server-side, and called by name. xref:aggregations.adoc[Aggregations]

| Constraints
| Rules over the whole collection that a write cannot break. xref:constraints.adoc[Constraints]

| Indexes
| Keep queries fast as the collection grows. xref:managing-indexes.adoc[Indexes]

| GraphQL
| A schema and a mapping, and your collections answer GraphQL. xref:graphql.adoc[GraphQL applications]

| Schemas
| JSON Schema validation on every write. xref:schemas.adoc[Schemas]

| Change streams
| Live updates to your UI over WebSocket. xref:change-streams.adoc[Change streams]

2+| **Users and access**

| Users
| The people and apps that sign in to your service. xref:managing-users.adoc[Users]

| Permissions
| Who may do what, by role. xref:managing-permissions.adoc[Permissions]

| API Keys
| Long-lived credentials a user issues for an agent or a script. xref:api-keys.adoc[API keys]

| Sign-up Mgmt
| Registration, verification, password reset, login with Google, invitations. xref:signup-mgmt.adoc[Sign-up management]

| Guards
| Your own rules, such as unaccepted terms or a lapsed plan, applied before a request reaches the data. xref:guards.adoc[Guards]

| Origin Allowlist
| Only your sites may call the API from a browser. xref:origin-allowlist.adoc[Origin allowlist]

2+| **Integrations**

| Email
| Quotas, and sending from your own address. xref:emails.adoc[Email]

| Webhooks
| Call an endpoint or send mail when something happens. xref:webhooks.adoc[Webhooks]

| Stripe
| Subscriptions and purchases from your app. xref:stripe.adoc[Stripe billing]

2+| **AI**

| Sophia AI
| Your documents answering questions in conversation, on a Dedicated service. https://cloud.restheart.com/sophia[Sophia]

| MCP Server
| Let an agent use your data, under your permissions. xref:mcp.adoc[MCP server]
|===

== What changes with the tier

On **Free** and **Shared** a service has one database and the console works in it directly. On **Dedicated** a service can have several, and a database selector appears on every page that works on collections. System collections also move: `/users` becomes `/restheart/users`, `/acl` becomes `/restheart/acl`. The console follows the right path for you; your own scripts must. See xref:plans.adoc[what differs between plans].

== How the console talks to your service

Every call the console makes to your service carries a short-lived **Admin JWT**, issued by RESTHeart Cloud and renewed for you. It is separate from your users' credentials. You can take one yourself from the Connect page for a test from a terminal; for automation use a xref:tokens.adoc[personal access token] and xref:cli.adoc[`rhc`] instead. A WebSocket change stream cannot be opened with it: that takes one of the service's users.

== Conventions

* Deleting anything asks for confirmation first. There are no silent deletes.
* Every list has a search box and pages.
* Every JSON field has a **Format** button that pretty-prints it and points at a mistake before you can save.
* An error from your service shows as a notification with the most specific message the service gave.