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Private Apps

A private frontend or backend opens only for the people you list. Everyone else is asked to sign in first. Use it while an app is still in development, for internal tools, or to show a preview to a client.

Private apps are available on the Starter and Pro plans.

Make an app private

  1. Open the frontend or backend and go to Settings.
  2. Turn on Private.
  3. Under People with access, add one email per line. Add @company.com to let everyone with an email at that domain in.
  4. Click Save.

Members of the project always have access and do not need to be listed.

What visitors see

A visitor who opens a private app is sent to PocketBase Cloud to sign in. If their account email is on the list, they go straight back to the page they asked for and stay signed in to that app for a day. If it is not, they see a message asking them to contact the app’s owner, and can switch to another account.

Removing someone from the list takes effect on their next request.

Requests that are not page loads, such as fetch calls from another site or a script, get 401 Unauthorized until the person signs in. Keep an app public if other services need to call it.

From the terminal

pbc frontend access private --name web
pbc frontend access add [email protected],@company.com --name web
pbc frontend access remove [email protected] --name web
pbc frontend access status --name web
pbc frontend access public --name web

The same commands work with pbc backend. private followed by emails replaces the list.

From an AI assistant

Connected through the MCP server, an assistant uses set_access to make an app private or public and to set the list, and get_resource to show who has access. Making an app public asks for your confirmation first.

Make an app public again

Turn off Private and click Save. The list is kept, so you can turn it back on later. Any plan can make an app public again.