# Running your instance

Once your self-hosted instance is up and running, there are a few steps to bootstrap the account and configure our SDKs to use your private instance.

## Register an account

Once your instance is up and running, you will need to register yourself an account. Head to [https://\<your instance domain>/register](https://cobrowse.io/register) to setup your account.

You may register multiple accounts in your instance if you would like. Some customers register accounts for dev, test, staging, etc.

{% hint style="info" %}
If you are using the Email "magic link" sign-in flow, but do not have a mail server set up and have disabled our default mail provider, then please retrieve the "magic link" from the application logs of the cobrowe-api container by temporarily setting the environment variable:

`DEBUG=cbio.email`

This should be reverted to avoid the risk of credential leaks through the application logs.
{% endhint %}

## Setting API location in the SDKs

You will need to set the API location when integrating the SDKs in order to point them at your private instance.

{% hint style="info" %}
When specifying the API, please do not use a trailing slash.
{% endhint %}

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Web" %}

```javascript
CobrowseIO.api = "https://cobrowse.example.com";
```

Insert this line into your Cobrowse initialisation logic. It must be inserted before `CobrowseIO.start()` is called.

If using our provided snippet, you can put this before or after the `CobrowseIO.license = "..."` line.
{% endtab %}

{% tab title="iOS" %}

```objectivec
CobrowseIO.instance.api = @"https://cobrowse.example.com";
```

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Android" %}

```java
CobrowseIO.instance().api("https://cobrowse.example.com");
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

## Useful resources

Now your instance is up an running, you should review the documentation below to fine tune your deployment.

{% content-ref url="/pages/-MYQ6LRQWRVUEx60Nwck" %}
[Adding a superuser](/enterprise-self-hosting/getting-started/adding-a-superuser.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="/pages/-MYQ423HYyPcLLRviYS\_" %}
[Limiting account creation](/enterprise-self-hosting/getting-started/limiting-account-creation.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="/pages/-M\_PXhEquMSWeicVqb7U" %}
[Configuring SMTP](/enterprise-self-hosting/getting-started/configuring-smtp.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="/pages/-MYPTUbYh-0TMShowgER" %}
[Managing your deployment](/enterprise-self-hosting/getting-started/management.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}


---

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Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.cobrowse.io/enterprise-self-hosting/getting-started.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

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