Running a public demo

DEMO_MODE turns an instance into a public playground: a single shared account that anyone can sign in to, landing in the seeded “Northwind Labs” workspace as its owner. Because everyone shares that one account, the mode adds guard rails so no visitor can lock out, evict, or deface the workspace for the next — and an hourly reset heals whatever slips through.

It defaults to off and, when off, changes nothing. Never turn it on for an instance that holds real data — the hourly reset force-deletes the workspace and its accounts.

Turn it on

Set the flag in .env and restart the stack (it is read at runtime — no rebuild):

DEMO_MODE=true

docker compose up -d

Then seed the demo workspace once:

docker compose exec app php artisan demo:seed

This creates the “Northwind Labs” workspace with the login [email protected] / demo-password.

How visitors get in

Point visitors at your home page. With DEMO_MODE=true an “Enter the demo” button appears there and on the login screen; one click signs the visitor into the shared account and drops them in the seeded workspace, so nobody has to know or type the credentials. The login screen still lists them in small print for anyone who wants to sign in by hand.

The button is only rendered while the flag is on, and the endpoint behind it (POST /demo/login) returns 404 when it is off, so a real deployment is left with no demo entry point at all. Entry is rate-limited per IP, like every other demo write.

What DEMO_MODE enforces

Turning the flag on activates all of the following at once:

• Destructive owner actions are blocked server-side — changing the shared account’s email, password, or name; enabling two-factor or a passkey; revoking sessions; deleting the account or team; renaming the team or editing its slug; transferring ownership; and removing or leaving members. Each control also renders disabled in the UI with a “Disabled in the demo” tooltip, and a slim banner across the top tells visitors they’re on a shared, throwaway workspace.
• All outbound email is swallowed. The mail transport is forced to the in-memory array driver, so invites, password resets, verification, and notifications never leave the host — regardless of your SMTP settings.
• Writes are rate-limited per IP — demo entry (~10/min), message sends (~30/min), and attachment uploads (~10/min), keyed by IP address since every visitor shares one account.
• Self-registration is forced off regardless of REGISTRATION_ENABLED, so a visitor can’t register a fresh unguarded account and sidestep the rails.

The hourly reset

A scheduled demo:seed runs every hour to wipe and rebuild the workspace, undoing whatever visitors changed. It relies on the scheduler running (the bundled stack runs it for you). You can also reset on demand at any time:

docker compose exec app php artisan demo:seed

Caution

The reset force-deletes the demo team and its accounts, so any in-flight visitor session breaks when it runs. That’s expected for a throwaway demo and is never appropriate for real data — keep DEMO_MODE=false on a genuine deployment.

See Feature toggles → Demo mode for the toggle reference.