Set up the dashboard

Create an accountCopy Anchor Link

Open the Folkways dashboard and choose Sign up. Enter your name, email and a password.

We email you a 6-digit code. Enter it on the Verify your email screen, then sign in with your email and password. If you forget your password later, use Forgot password on the sign-in screen.

Create a workspaceCopy Anchor Link

A workspace holds your team, your plan and your segments. Give it a name (your company or project) and pick a plan.

You can invite teammates later under Team.

Create a segmentCopy Anchor Link

A segment is one realtime app, isolated from every other. Go to Segments → New segment and fill in:

• Name, for example Chat (production).
• Environment: Development, Staging or Production. Use a separate segment per environment.
• Transports: keep WebSocket (apps and browsers) and HTTP publish and long-poll (backends, and browsers where WebSockets are blocked) both on.

Add a signing keyCopy Anchor Link

Your backend signs a short-lived token for each user with this key, and Folkways checks the signature. Open the segment's Signing keys tab and choose Add key:

• Generate a key pair: the dashboard creates the pair and shows you the private key once. Save it in your backend's secrets right away; Folkways keeps only the public half.
• Use my own public key: create the pair yourself (with OpenSSL or your cloud's key service) and paste only the public key.
• Shared secret (HS256): one secret that both signs and checks. Fine for trying things out; production plans need a key pair.

Pick Ed25519 unless your tools need P-256. Note the Key ID (kid): your backend sends it with every token. How authentication works explains why there is no "secret API key".

Add topic rulesCopy Anchor Link

Folkways refuses every topic until a rule allows it. Open the Topic rules tab, choose Add rule and enter:

• Pattern: which topics the rule covers. * matches one level and a trailing > matches one or more, so chat/> covers chat/lobby and chat/team/42.
• Class: how events on those topics are delivered. Durable keeps an ordered history (chat, feeds), Last value keeps the latest value per key (locations, status) and Ephemeral carries short-lived signals (typing indicators). In the SDK these are called stream, kv and signal; see Topics and events.
• Operations the rule allows, such as subscribe and publish.

For the quick start, add one rule: pattern chat/>, class Durable, operations subscribe and publish.

Copy your connection detailsCopy Anchor Link

The segment's Connect tab shows a checklist and the values your code needs:

When the checklist says Ready for clients, continue with Installation.