Making projects private requires a Private subscription

User account management and project settings.

Onboarding (first sign-up): When you sign up, we ask a few questions including whether you want AI options switched on and active right at the start, and what you want to do first in the app. If you choose an AI-first workflow, AI is switched on automatically. If AI is off, there are no AI services at all (except basic MapCat help); you can change this anytime in Account settings. If AI is on, you get 10 free AI credits per month, and the AI switch is turned on by default; you can turn it off later in Account settings.

AI coding toggle ("AI options switched on and active"): Turn on to use AI; turn off and there are no AI services at all (except basic MapCat help). You can change this anytime in Account settings. When you turn it on, a warning modal appears: your data is sent to AI providers when you use AI; it is not used to train models; OpenAI (GPT) may retain data for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring; Vertex AI and DashScope do not retain data; see our privacy policy. Credits when on depend on your plan (Free: 10, Private: 100, Pro: 1000, Team: 2000/month). Plans without AI (e.g. Private Manual) can turn on to try with 10 credits/month (free credits do not stack with paid AI plans).

Where AI runs is a project setting, not a user setting. Each project has an AI Processing Region (Project → Edit project → AI Processing Region) with three options: EU (Belgium, europe-west1), UK (London, europe-west2), or US (Virginia, us-east5). New projects default to EU.

When the region is EU or UK, the app guarantees every AI call stays in Europe:

• The model picker is filtered to Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 2.5 Flash only. Faster models like Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.1 Pro are hidden because they route through Google's global endpoint, not a European region.
• Any AI request that would process data outside Europe is blocked client-side before it leaves the browser. A notification explains which model or region caused the block and how to fix it.
• Document embeddings (used by RAG and similarity search) automatically route to europe-west1 (or europe-west2 for UK), instead of the default us-central1.

When the region is US, the model picker shows the full list, including Gemini 3.5 Flash, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview, GPT-5, Qwen and others. These are faster or more capable, but they process your prompts and data outside Europe.

Switching the region for an existing project takes effect immediately — the dropdowns re-render and the gate updates without a reload.

You can change this toggle anytime.

Account Features:

• project information and settings
• Password and security management
• Account deletion and data export
• Subscription and billing information

2FA (beginner guide)#

If your organisation asks you to use 2FA, do this in Account → Two-factor authentication:

1. Turn on Require two-factor authentication on sign-in.
2. Sign out, then sign in again.
3. If asked, scan the QR code in your authenticator app.
4. Enter the 6-digit code to finish setup.

If codes do not work:

• Try a different Causal Map entry in your authenticator (you may have old entries).
• Use Delete all 2FA factors in the same card, then sign out/in and set up again.

For strict org policy:

• Click Require 2FA permanently.
• This is one-way in the app UI and keeps 2FA locked on for that account.

Image export resolution#

Controls resolution for all image capture (map copy/download, bookmarks, pivot/table screenshots, PDF export). Options: 1× (default), 2×, 3×. Resets to 1× on page load. 1× is already very good for most uses; higher values produce larger files and may hit clipboard limits on large maps.

Subscriptions#

Subscriptions List#

Users without a subscription are either:

• anonymous (not logged in) (this is disabled at present)
• free (logged in)

Subscriptions (via LemonSqueezy) are available in the Account panel. Monthly and Annual plans are recurring subscriptions: a Monthly plan renews and is charged each month until the subscription manager cancels it.

To manage billing, update payment details, or cancel a subscription, open Account → Your subscriptions and click Manage in LS. This opens the Lemon Squeezy customer portal. Only the subscription manager/purchaser sees this button; users who only have a seat on someone else's subscription should ask the manager to make billing changes.

Admins can also create manual subscriptions (for testing/support). These are stored in the same subscriptions_purchased table but do not come from Lemon Squeezy.

The subscriptions list uses one row per type (private, pro, team) with seat-count, square radio buttons for monthly/annual and Manual/AI, and a live-updating price (from a JSON price file). Each row includes a text description.

There are three dimensions to the subscriptions,

Manual vs AI,

Type:

• private
• pro
• team

Monthly vs Annual.

AI credits (when you have AI): Free users who opt in get 10 credits/month. Private AI: 100. Pro AI: 1000. Team: 2000. Credits renew at the start of each month and do not roll over. See Responses Panel for usage. Plans without AI (e.g. Private Manual) can turn on the AI toggle in Account to try with 10 credits/month.

User can purchase multiples of one or more subs to distribute to colleagues.

Subscriptions Table#

The Subscriptions card shows a simple table of the subscriptions where you are the manager or a subscriber, with the manager and subscriber emails. If you manage a subscription, an Edit button lets you change who has a seat.

Renewals: your renewal date updates automatically whenever you open or refresh the app while signed in.

Reminder emails: we email you before a subscription ends, 7 days before, 1 day before, and when it expires.

Private projects and subscription expiry#

The paid value is privacy: a private project is one that only you, and the people you invite, can see. Keeping a project private needs an active paid plan.

On the free plan, projects are public: anyone with the link can view them. You cannot make a project private without a paid plan.

On a paid plan that includes private projects (Private, Pro, Team and similar), you can make projects private and work on them privately.

If your paid plan expires, your private projects cannot be opened, viewed or edited, until you do one of these:

• Renew your plan: the projects stay private and open normally again, or
• Make a project public: you can do this without a plan, behind a confirmation. After that anyone can view it, and you can open and edit it again.

Your private projects are never published for you. Turning a project public is always your own explicit choice.

When you allocate seats, the email box pre-fills your own email in the first slot and tells you how many seats are left, or if you have added too many emails.