# User settings

User settings hold the choices that apply to your account in every workspace. Select **User settings** at the bottom of the sidebar, or open it from the account menu. The sections below follow the order of the page.

## Connected accounts

Connecting an account lets Hephaestus recognize your work on that service. It grants neither workspace membership nor AI permission.

1. Under **Connected accounts**, select **Connect** next to the service.
2. Finish the sign-in on that service.

Connecting needs a recent sign-in. For Slack, connect the account of the Slack workspace where you want to send Hephaestus direct messages.

To stop using an account, select **Disconnect** next to it. You cannot disconnect your only sign-in account.

## Passkeys

**Passkeys** protects your admin access and holds your recovery codes. [Passkeys](/next/user/passkeys.md) explains how to add, remove, and recover them.

## Active sessions

**Active sessions** lists the browsers and devices where you are signed in, also Chrome extension sessions. **This device** marks your current session.

* To sign out one session, select **Sign out** on its row.
* To sign out every other session, select **Sign out N other sessions**, then **Sign out other sessions**.

Signing out a session needs a recent sign-in. If Hephaestus asks you to confirm access, sign in again and repeat the action. Your current session stays signed in. To sign it out, use the account menu.

## Practice feedback

**Comments on your work** controls new feedback comments on the issues, pull requests, and merge requests that you author. It is on until you turn it off, and it applies in every workspace.

* To stop new comments, turn off **Comments on your work**.
* To allow new comments again, turn it on.

Turning it off does not stop reviews or remove comments already posted. Workspace admins see the observations of those reviews, and your Practice profile shows your feedback.

## Your AI choice

Your AI choice decides which AI models may review your work and answer you in Hephaestus. You give one answer for every workspace on this instance, also in Slack. It does not pick a model.

| Answer       | What it allows                                                                                  |
| ------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **In-house** | Only models that your organization declares it runs                                             |
| **Cloud**    | In-house models, and models that your organization declares a cloud provider runs               |
| **No AI**    | No new practice reviews about you, no new questions to Hephaestus, and no new feedback delivery |

1. Under **Your AI choice**, select **In-house**, **Cloud**, or **No AI**.
2. Select **Save AI choice**.

No answer starts selected. Until you answer, a workspace that requires an answer uses no AI for you. A workspace that does not require one may use a model that does not declare how it handles data.

Hephaestus never changes your answer to allow more AI processing. It checks your saved answer on each request, also when a workspace adds models. A new answer does not recall requests already sent to a provider.

With **No AI**, your feedback and your conversation stay readable, but you cannot send Hephaestus a message. **No AI** does not stop source sync, remove stored work, or change who can read your data. Your work can appear as shared repository context in reviews about other developers.

Research participation is a separate choice. [Your data in Hephaestus](/next/user/privacy.md#your-ai-choice) explains what a provider receives.

### Models in a workspace

User settings show no models. To see them, open **Your AI choice** in a workspace sidebar. Each answer’s card there shows the first model for a new request, its maker’s logo, and the service that receives requests. If more models are ready, the card shows their count.

A workspace owner declares who operates each model. A model’s logo names its maker, not its operator. For example, a private endpoint does not make an OpenAI model served by Azure in-house. Ask a workspace admin who operates the model, and on what terms.

### Accounts that a workspace requires

On your first visit to a workspace, it can ask you to connect accounts that it requires. A required account must belong to the Slack team or Outline instance of that workspace.

* **Save AI choice** saves your answer. If you connected every required account, it also finishes setup.
* **Save and connect** saves your answer and opens the sign-in of the account.
* **Skip for now** leaves without saving the selected answer. A saved answer stays in effect.
* On later visits, **Back to workspace** leaves without saving.

An account that is unavailable, and an optional account, never block setup. **No AI** never needs a connected account. After setup, you return to the workspace page that you came from.

## Public activity pages

**Show me on public activity pages** decides if your work appears on the public activity pages of your workspaces. It is off until you turn it on. [Public activity page](/next/user/public-activity.md#show-or-hide-yourself) explains what the page shows and how to show or hide yourself.

## Product feedback

This section appears when your instance files product feedback as public GitHub issues.

* **Public GitHub issues** sets the default for your reports about Hephaestus. You can change it for each report.
* **Mention my GitHub account (@login) on public issues** lets anyone see that you sent the report. It appears when you connected a GitHub account.

Turning off **Public GitHub issues** keeps your waiting reports private. An issue that is already public needs **Make private** on each report. [Product feedback](/next/user/product-feedback.md) explains the choices.

## Weekly digest

**Weekly digest** adds a summary of your week to your conversation with Hephaestus. It is off until you turn it on, and one switch covers all your workspaces. **Time zone** sets when it arrives. [Weekly digest](/next/user/ask-hephaestus.md#weekly-digest) explains what it lists and where its note arrives.

## Email notifications

Optional emails depend on your role and on your instance’s email setup. Your address comes from a sign-in provider that gave a verified email address. You cannot enter another address.

| Email                             | When it arrives                                                                                                   | Starts |
| --------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------ |
| **Your product feedback updates** | The GitHub issue for your product feedback changes                                                                | On     |
| **Workspace connection alerts**   | A connection in a workspace that you administer needs attention, such as a refused or expiring token, or recovers | Off    |
| **New product feedback**          | New product feedback arrives. Only instance admins get this choice.                                               | Off    |

Turn each email on or off in this section. You can also unsubscribe with the link in an email, without sign-in. Emails about account security and deletion are not optional.

## Slack

For each connected Slack workspace, **Use your new channel messages** decides if Hephaestus uses your new messages in monitored channels. It uses them as context for your conversation in that workspace.

Stopping deletes collected data

Turning off **Use your new channel messages** permanently deletes the channel-message data already collected from you in that workspace. Your messages in Slack stay. To keep the collected data, select **Cancel** in the dialog.

1. Turn off **Use your new channel messages**.
2. In the dialog, select **Stop using and delete**.

To allow new messages again, turn the switch on. This does not restore deleted data.

In Slack, the Hephaestus App Home has the same controls: **Stop using my messages** and **Allow future messages**.

## Research participation

This section appears when your instance names a research organization.

* To allow research use, turn on **Allow research use of my data**.
* To withdraw, turn it off.

Hephaestus records your answer with the date and the version of the text that you saw. [Your data in Hephaestus](/next/user/privacy.md#research-participation) explains what withdrawal changes.

## Danger zone

### Export your data

1. Under **Export your data**, select **Request export**.
2. Wait until the export is ready. If it fails, select **Request export again**.
3. Select **Download** to save the JSON file.

The download expires 48 hours after it is ready. Keep the file private.

The file holds your account, connected sign-in identities, memberships, preferences, AI choice, and sign-in history. It also holds, for every workspace:

* Your conversations with Hephaestus, in the app and in Slack, with the weekly digests. The results of the tools that Hephaestus used stay out, because they can hold other people’s data.
* The feedback delivered to you, with the comments posted on your work. Withdrawn feedback keeps its dates, but not its text.
* Your responses to feedback, also earlier ones that you changed.

The file holds no credentials or session secrets. [Your data in Hephaestus](/next/user/privacy.md#get-a-copy-of-your-data) explains how to ask for the records that the export leaves out.

### Delete your account

You cannot undo account deletion

**Delete account** signs you out on all devices and permanently deletes your account at once. Nobody can undo it, also not your instance operator. To leave one workspace or sign out a device, do not delete your account.

1. Under **Delete account**, select **Delete account**.
2. In the dialog, enter the confirmation phrase that it shows.
3. Select **Delete account** again. If you have not signed in recently, Hephaestus first asks you to sign in again.

The sign-in page then shows that your account is deleted. Hephaestus erases your sign-in details, AI choice, memberships, observations, feedback, conversations, and product feedback reports. It also erases the contributor profiles and the copies of the work of the identities connected to your account.

If Hephaestus posted feedback for you on GitHub, GitLab, or Slack, erasure finishes after your instance operator removes those comments. Deletion does not delete your original work on connected services. [Your data in Hephaestus](/next/user/privacy.md#delete-your-account-or-request-wider-erasure) lists what Hephaestus keeps and how to ask for wider erasure.

## Troubleshooting

### A required account is unavailable

Ask a workspace admin to repair the connection, or a workspace owner to remove the requirement. An unavailable account does not block setup.

### A card says Not set up in … yet

No model in this workspace meets that answer, so nothing runs for you for that purpose here. You can keep the answer while a workspace admin adds a model. You do not need to allow **Cloud** to finish setup.