Use matrix-registration to **create unique registration links**, which people can use to register on your Matrix server. It allows you to **keep your server's registration closed (private)**, but still allow certain people (these having a special link) to register a user account.
**matrix-registration** provides 2 things:
- **an API for creating registration tokens** (unique registration links). This API can be used via `curl` or via the playbook (see [Usage](#usage) below)
- **a user registration page**, where people can use these registration tokens. By default, exposed at `https://matrix.example.com/matrix-registration`
By default, this playbook installs the matrix-registration on the `matrix.` subdomain, at the `/matrix-registration` path (https://matrix.example.com/matrix-registration). This makes it easy to install it, because it **doesn't require additional DNS records to be set up**. If that's okay, you can skip this section.
By tweaking the `matrix_registration_hostname` and `matrix_registration_path_prefix` variables, you can easily make the service available at a **different hostname and/or path** than the default one.
Example additional configuration for your `inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com/vars.yml` file:
After configuring the playbook and potentially [adjusting your DNS records](#adjusting-dns-records), run the playbook with [playbook tags](playbook-tags.md) as below:
<!-- NOTE: let this conservative command run (instead of install-all) to make it clear that failure of the command means something is clearly broken. -->
`just install-all` is useful for maintaining your setup quickly ([2x-5x faster](../CHANGELOG.md#2x-5x-performance-improvements-in-playbook-runtime) than `just setup-all`) when its components remain unchanged. If you adjust your `vars.yml` to remove other components, you'd need to run `just setup-all`, or these components will still remain installed. Note these shortcuts run the `ensure-matrix-users-created` tag too.
It provides various [APIs](https://github.com/ZerataX/matrix-registration/wiki/api) - for creating registration tokens, listing tokens, disabling tokens, etc. To make use of all of its capabilities, consider using `curl`.
The above command creates and returns a **one-time use** token, which **expires** on the 31st of December 2021. Adjust the `one_time` and `ex_date` variables as you see fit.
