Dev environment: recommended way to bootstrap the first admin account without email?

Development
6

Thanks both - that makes sense.

I think the distinction is that the documented d/boot_dev --init path already creates the admin user, so my confusion came from experimenting around the dev environment rather than following that exact init flow end-to-end.

The MailHog tip is also helpful. I hadn’t realised the dev setup could capture the confirmation emails locally via mailhog and localhost:8025, which explains the intended workflow if someone does use the normal signup/email-confirmation path.

So the smoother mental model seems to be:

  1. For the standard Docker dev setup, use d/boot_dev --init and create the admin account when prompted.
  2. If testing email/signup flows, run mailhog and view messages at localhost:8025.
  3. If needed separately, bin/rails admin:create is the manual helper for creating an admin account.

That clears up the confusion - thanks.

One small separate question while I’m exploring the dev UI: what are the small icon buttons in the vertical toolbar used for? I can see them in the interface, but I’m not immediately sure whether they are normal user-facing controls, admin shortcuts, or development/debug helpers.