Setup — setup.html

The way a new browser gets its API key without anyone typing one. Generate a link from Plugins → Dashboards → Generate One-Time Setup Link (+QR), open it on the device, and this page stores the key and forwards to the hub.

What it shows

A single card. On a valid link it reads the token, stores the key and moves on. On an invalid or spent link: “Setup link not valid”, with instructions to generate a fresh one, and a link to the hub for entering the key by hand instead.

How it works

The token is in the query string. The page fetches the token’s file, takes the API key out of it, stores the key, then calls burnSetupToken to delete the file so the link cannot be used again. The burn authenticates with the key it has just received. It checks the plugin’s liveness gate first; if the plugin is restarting it skips the burn and waits, since an unredeemed link is swept by its own time-to-live within ten minutes anyway.

Worth knowing

• There is no screenshot of a successful redemption on purpose: a valid setup link is a working credential with a one-time life, and redeeming one to take the picture would also destroy it.
• The hub’s own Connect form is the manual alternative, and the error card links straight to it.
• Auto-seeding (Auto-seed the API key to LAN browsers under Configure) makes this page unnecessary for a browser on the home network or the tailnet.