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First Login and Setup

After a clean OpenEA Community installation, complete the following setup steps before loading production architecture data.

1. Create the Platform Administrator

If no user exists yet, OpenEA exposes /setup for initial account creation.

The first account receives the Platform Administrator role.

2. Understand Platform Administrator scope

OpenEA separates platform administration from architecture stewardship.

A Platform Administrator can manage users, service accounts, and API tokens. The role does not automatically grant create/edit/archive permission for architecture objects.

If your administrator also needs to maintain repository content, assign one of these roles as appropriate:

  • Architecture Administrator
  • Architect

3. Create normal user accounts

Platform Administrators manage users under Management → Users.

For each user, configure:

  • Username
  • Display name
  • Password
  • Active state
  • One or more application roles

A Platform Administrator cannot deactivate their own account or remove their own Platform Administrator role through the user-management form.

4. Choose repository roles

A simple initial assignment model is:

User type Suggested role
EA platform owner Platform Administrator + Architecture Administrator
Enterprise / Solution Architect Architect
Architecture steward who updates existing records Contributor
Read-only stakeholder Viewer

See Users and Permissions for the full permission model.

5. Verify the worker

Analytics and findings are persisted and recalculated asynchronously. In Docker Compose, confirm the worker is healthy and running:

docker compose ps

You should see postgres, web, and worker services.

If you are troubleshooting calculated data, you can force synchronous processing:

docker compose exec web python -m app.cli recalculate-metrics-now
docker compose exec web python -m app.cli evaluate-findings-now

6. Decide whether to load sample data

For evaluation or training, load Northstar Financial:

docker compose exec web python -m app.cli seed-demo
docker compose exec web python -m app.cli recalculate-metrics-now
docker compose exec web python -m app.cli evaluate-findings-now

For a production repository, skip the demo and begin with your own architecture records or CSV imports.

7. Start with a small architecture slice

Do not try to model the entire enterprise on day one. A useful first slice is:

  1. A few Business Capabilities
  2. The Applications that support them
  3. The Technologies those Applications use
  4. The owning Organizations or Roles
  5. Relevant Initiatives

That is enough to begin using search, relationship navigation, impact analysis, findings, and portfolio views while the repository grows iteratively.