Your first license in 10 minutes
Follow these seven steps in order. At the end, your own program will ask for a key, let one person in, and show you who it was. Every blue link with an arrow opens the real page in a new tab and points at the button to press.
Four words first
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Application | One program you sell. Atlas keeps its customers, rules and records in one box with its name on it. |
| API key | The secret name tag your program shows Atlas so Atlas knows which box it belongs to. It goes inside your program. Never give it to customers. |
| License key | The code you give a customer, like ATLAS-K7X2M-9QD4B. They type it in your program to get in. |
| Build | One finished version of your program, the .exe file. Atlas only lets builds you approved sign in. |
Step 1. Make your Atlas account
Go to the sign-up page and press Discord, Google or fill in an email and a password. Tick the boxes that say you are 18 or older and that you accept the rules. If you used email, open the link we send you.
You are done when you can see your name in the top corner. More about this is in Sign up and sign in.
Step 2. Make an application
Open Applications and find New application. Press it, type a name for your program (3 to 50 letters) and press the button to create it.
You will see a card with your program's name. Click the card so Atlas knows this is the one you are working on. Everything you do next happens inside it.
Step 3. Copy your API key and get the SDK
Open Settings, SDK and key. The key is blurred so nobody can read it over your shoulder. Press the button to show it, then copy it. On the same page are buttons that take you to the SDK on GitHub: choose the language your program is written in (C++, JavaScript or Python).
Keep the key private. If it ever leaks, the same page has a button that makes a new one. About SDK and key.
Step 4. Put Atlas in your program
Your program needs three things: the key, a call to start Atlas, and a call that sends the license key. The shortest working version, in each language, is in Install and first sign-in. Copy it, paste your API key where it says to, and build your program.
Step 5. Tell Atlas which build is yours
Atlas refuses every build it has not been told about. That is the point: a changed or copied program cannot sign in. Open Settings, Builds and find Add hash, press it and drop in the .exe you just built. Atlas works out its fingerprint for you.
Do this again after every rebuild, because every build has a new fingerprint. About Builds and updates.
Step 6. Make a license key
Open Users and find Generate. Press it. For a first key you can leave the shape alone, set Amount to 1, choose how long the key should last, and press the button at the bottom to make it.
The key appears in a list. Copy it. It starts the first time someone uses it, so it will not run out while it waits. All the options for generating keys.
Step 7. Run your program and watch it happen
Start your program, type the license key and press enter. If it lets you in, you did everything right.
- Open Monitor to see who is signed in right now. You will see yourself.
- Open Logs to see every sign-in and every refusal, newest first.
- Open Overview and follow the setup checklist: it ticks each step as you finish it.
It did not work
A program that is refused is not broken. Atlas wrote down exactly why. Open Logs, find the red line, and read it against Why a sign-in was refused. It lists every message in plain words with the one thing to change.
Still stuck after that? Open a support ticket. Say what you did, what you expected and what happened.
What to learn next
- Give customers accounts with a username and password instead of keys: Licenses and accounts.
- Stop someone sharing a key: Bans and Monitor.
- Send people updates without a new download: Updates.
- Make the program harder to copy or change: What the Obfuscator does.