An instance is a single self-managed installation of Plane on a private cloud or server that the Instance admin controls and administers. A single instance can house multiple workspaces.

There may also be cases where a user IRL is running multiple instances, e.g., when using Plane for several clients. An Instance admin role will have to be declared for each of those instances, but it is okay to use the same email address for all of them.

This role lets instance admins access /god-mode, a route for features that help them administer and govern their Plane instance better for all users of that instance.

New instances allow skipping going to God Mode and setting up your workspace instead. Whatever you choose after secure instance set-up, we highly recommend coming quickly to /god-mode to set up at least your SMTP server so your users can start getting invite emails to projects.

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Settings

God Mode features a few screens as shown below.

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General

The General settings page allows you to view or configure core instance details and telemetry preferences. Here’s what you can manage:

  • Name of instance
    Customize the name of your instance.

  • Email
    Displays the instance admin email address.

  • Instance ID
    Displays a unique identifier for your instance.

  • Chat with us
    Enable or disable in-app chat support for users. Disabling telemetry automatically turns this off.

  • Let Plane collect anonymous usage data
    Plane collects anonymized usage data (no PII) to help improve features and overall experience. You can turn this off anytime. See Telemetry for more info.

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Workspaces

The Workspaces section allows you to manage all workspaces within your Plane instance.

  • View all Workspaces
    Access a complete list of workspaces on your instance.

  • Create Workspaces
    You can create new workspaces directly from this section. If workspace creation is restricted, only the instance admin will have this ability.

  • Restrict Workspace creation
    Toggle the Prevent anyone from creating a workspace option to prevent anyone else from creating workspaces. Once enabled, only you (the instance admin) can create new workspaces.

To add users to a workspace, you will need to invite them after creating it.

Workspace deletion is currently not supported.

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Email

Set up your SMTP server here so you can send essential emails—password resets, exports, changes to your instance—and Plane-enabled emails—onboarding, tips and tricks, new features— to all your users. Learn more here.

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Authentication

Control what SSO and OAuth services your users can use to sign up and log in to your Plane instance. You can also toggle unique code and password logins on and off from here. Learn more here.

  • Allow anyone to sign up without an invite
    Toggle this setting off if you want your users to join the instance only if they receive an invite.

This is where you will see new SSO services and custom OAuth configs in the future.

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Artificial intelligence

Plane supports the use of AI throughout your projects. For now, we support OpenAI’s APIs and keys. You can configure them here or leave them blank if you don’t wish to offer AI features to your users. Your Plane experience remains largely unchanged if you don’t set this up.

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Images in Plane

You can use your own third-party libraries to update images in project settings. Configure your Unsplash key here. When we add more image libraries, they will show up here.

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Add instance admin

To grant a user full administrative access (including God mode) to your self-hosted Plane instance, you’ll need to assign them the Instance Admin role. Instance admins have unrestricted control over all configurations and settings within the instance.

To promote an existing user to Instance Admin, execute the following command in your terminal:

  docker exec <backend_container_name> /bin/bash -c "python manage.py create_instance_admin <user_email>"

Ensure that the provided email matches the user’s registered account. This command will instantly elevate their privileges to full administrative access.

Soon, we will introduce God Mode for our Cloud users as well so they can manage their workspaces better. To get notified about this, sign up here.

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FAQs