Lock the whole manual

This guide puts the entire manual behind one gate – a password, a company email, or both. Use it for an internal manual or one that is not finished yet. For the other ways to lock content, see the overview in How access works.

What you will have

Anyone who opens the manual's address sees only a sign-in screen and gets in after entering the password or a code from their email. As a signed-in editor, you keep working without restrictions.

Steps

  1. Open Settings → Access Protection

    In the panel's left menu, click Settings and switch to the Access Protection tab. These settings can be changed by the Admin role.

    Settings → Access protection.
    Settings → Access protection.

  2. Set a password

    In Access Password, type a password of at least 12 characters, for example blue-palette-for-the-team-2026. To let people in by email only, leave the field empty.

  3. Add company domains

    In Allowed Email Domains, type a domain such as company.com and confirm it. Add more domains the same way. If you only want a password, leave the field empty.

  4. Save your changes

    Click Save. The lock applies immediately and to all languages of the manual.

  5. Share access

    Send the password to the people who should have it. For email verification, just share the manual's address – anyone with an address in an allowed domain verifies on their own.

How to tell it worked

Open the manual's address in a private browser window where you are not signed in to the panel. Instead of the home page you see the sign-in screen. Enter the password or an email and check that you get in.

What visitors see

The sign-in screen uses the header color or image from Design and shows the main logo above the box and the manual description inside it. If you set both a password and domains, the email field and an Unlock button come first. The password is behind the Unlock with password link.

After unlocking, visitors land on exactly the address they were heading to. Access lasts 2 hours in that browser, then they verify again.

What else the lock hides

  • robots.txt blocks the whole site for search engines and sitemap.xml is empty.
  • The llms.txt file for AI tools is not available and no preview image appears when the link is shared.
  • The public MCP server switches off, even if it is enabled in Settings → MCP.
  • The manual's images and files cannot be downloaded, not even through a direct address.

For details, see Locked content, search and AI.

Signed-in editors need no password

Anyone signed in to the panel sees the manual without the sign-in screen, so you can keep editing and reviewing it, including directly on the site. Individually locked pages, however, have to be unlocked by editors just like by visitors.

Changing or turning off the lock

To turn the lock off, clear both fields and save. If you only change the password or the list of domains, everyone who was unlocked has to verify again.

Things to watch out for

Questions and answers

Why can't a colleague at a branch office with name@branch.company.com get in?

Domains are matched exactly. Add branch.company.com to Allowed Email Domains as well.

A freelancer uses a Gmail address. How do I let them in?

Public mailboxes cannot be allowed. Fill in Access Password as well and send it to them.