# Signing in and your account

> How you sign in, the browsers signed in to your account, and where the sidebar, header and account menu lead.

Page: https://docs.memex.tools/accounts

## There is no password

You sign in with an account you already have: Google, Apple, Microsoft or GitHub, whichever of these the sign-in screen offers. These are the only ways in: memex sends no sign-in links and no reset mail. The provider must supply a verified email address or no account is created.

A Microsoft account can be a work or school account as well as a personal one; if an employer owns it, keep in mind they can close it. Add a second provider from **Settings**, so losing one does not lock you out. Signing in for the first time creates your account and your knowledge base; a second provider is added from **Settings**, not by signing in with it.

Your email address is the verified address the provider gave when your account was created. It cannot be changed.

A suspended account is refused at every way in with *This account is suspended. Write to hello@memex.tools.* Nothing it holds is touched, and resuming it restores everything.

> **Self-hosted memex**
>
> A self-hosted memex holds one account, which signs in with an email address and a password. See [Sign-in and password](https://docs.memex.tools/self-hosted-sign-in).

## Devices

**Settings › Account** lists every browser signed in to your account, with a **Sign out** for each and **Sign out everywhere else**. A session lasts thirty days of inactivity. **Sign out** in the account menu ends the current one.

## Finding your way around

The sidebar holds **Notes**, **Skills** and **Review Inbox**, then your workspaces. Until an assistant has reached your memex, **Connect an assistant** sits above your name and opens **Settings › Assistants**.

The header at the top right of every page holds **Activity log**, **Docs**, which opens these docs in a new tab, the **Sunrise** and **Midnight** switch, and the gear that opens Settings.

The account menu opens from your name at the foot of the sidebar: **Docs**, **Personalization** (**Settings › Personalization**), **Connect an assistant**, **Settings**, and **Sign out**.

## A new account

A new account opens on the Notes list, holding five notes. memex wrote three of them: *Welcome to memex*, *Connect your first assistant* and *Make memex yours*, which say how to connect an assistant or an agent, what happens to what it writes, how skills work, and where your profile and memex's writing rules are set. Their links to Settings and the inbox open those pages of your own memex.

The other two are starter skills, switched on: *Plain writing*, for drafting text someone else will read, and *Handoff*, for saving where a piece of work stands and picking it up again in any assistant. All five are yours: edit them, switch the skills off on the Skills page, or delete any of them. memex starts no profile for you; the welcome notes say how to start one.

## Related

- [Settings](https://docs.memex.tools/settings): What each Settings pane holds.
- [What every setting does](https://docs.memex.tools/every-setting): Every pane of Settings and what each control in it changes.
- [Delete your account](https://docs.memex.tools/delete-account): Export your notes, then delete your account for good.
- [Sign-in and password](https://docs.memex.tools/self-hosted-sign-in): The one account on a self-hosted memex, its setup code, its password, and what to do when the password is forgotten.