Signing in and out
This page covers the basics of authenticating to LedgerBear — how sign-in works, how sessions time out, and how to sign out cleanly.
Signing in
Go to the sign-in page, type your email and password, and click Sign in. If your credentials are right, you land in your default household. If you belong to more than one, you can switch from the profile panel — see Switching between households.
Passwords are 6–80 characters. LedgerBear stores them hashed with a modern algorithm (Argon2), so even a database breach wouldn't expose the plaintext.
Staying signed in
A successful sign-in creates a session stored in a cookie. The session keeps you signed in across page reloads and browser restarts, until it expires.
Session timeouts
LedgerBear ends sessions automatically after a period of inactivity. Before that happens, you'll see a warning — typically a few minutes before the timeout — giving you a chance to stay active or save work. If you do nothing, the session ends and the next action kicks you back to the sign-in page.
This is a security measure: if you step away from a shared computer and forget to sign out, the session ends on its own so nobody else can wander in.
Signing out manually
Click your name in the top-left to open the profile panel, then click Sign out at the bottom. The session is invalidated immediately; clicking Back in your browser won't take you back into LedgerBear.
On a shared or public computer, always sign out when you're done — don't rely on the idle timeout.
Signed-out sessions elsewhere
Signing out only signs out the session you're currently using. If you're signed in on your phone, desktop, and laptop, signing out on one doesn't sign you out on the others.
Some actions do invalidate all your sessions household-wide:
- Changing your password (see Changing your password).
- Being removed from a household (signs out the one session pointed at that household).
- An Owner changing your role while you're signed in.
Multiple browser tabs
Each tab shares the same session. Opening LedgerBear in a new tab uses the existing login; you don't have to sign in again. If you sign out in one tab, the others will show an authentication error on the next action and redirect to the sign-in page.
Forgot your password?
See If you forget your password for the reset flow.