Sign in & connect your account

You sign in to Contral with a Contral account from contral.ai. The same account works in the extension, the desktop IDE and the dashboard, and it carries your plan (including an AppSumo lifetime license) and your usage.

Ways to sign in to Contral#

You can sign in to a Contral account with any of these methods:

• Continue with Google
• Continue with GitHub
• Email and password. New email accounts must verify their email address.

Each method creates or opens its own account. If you signed up with Google, always sign in with Google. Signing in with a different method or email creates a separate, empty account that doesn't have your plan.

Sign in from the Contral extension#

1. Click the Contral icon in the activity bar and click Sign in, or run Contral: Sign in from the Command Palette. To go straight to GitHub, run Contral: Sign in with GitHub. You can also type /login in the Contral chat.
2. The extension shows "Complete sign-in in your browser. We'll pick up the token automatically." and opens contral.ai in your browser.
3. If you're already signed in to contral.ai in that browser, Contral uses that account. Otherwise, sign in or create an account.
4. The browser page says "Returning to your editor". When your browser asks whether to open your editor (for example "Open Visual Studio Code?" or "Open Cursor?"), allow it.
5. Back in the editor, you'll see "Signed in as you@example.com".

If the editor doesn't open by itself, the browser page shows One last step with an Open button after a couple of seconds. Click it.

Sign in from Contral IDE (desktop)#

1. In Contral IDE, click Continue with Contral on the sign-in screen.
2. Your browser opens contral.ai. Sign in or create an account.
3. When the browser asks to open Contral IDE, allow it. If nothing happens, click Open Contral IDE on the "You're signed in!" page.

The desktop IDE keeps you signed in for 7 days at a time. After that, it asks you to sign in again.

Checking which Contral account you're signed in with#

• In the extension: type /status in the Contral chat. It shows your sign-in, plan and connection status.
• On the web: open contral.ai/overview↗. Your name or email is in the top-right corner and your plan badge is next to "Welcome back".

Signing out of Contral#

• Extension: run Contral: Sign out from the Command Palette, or type /logout in the chat. You'll see "Signed out of Contral."
• Dashboard: click the sign-out icon in the top-right corner of contral.ai/overview↗.

Signing out of the website doesn't sign out your editor, and the other way round.

When your Contral session expires in the editor#

Editor sign-ins don't last forever. When yours expires, Contral shows messages like "You're not signed in. Sign in to start building." or a teaching card with Session expired and a Sign in again button. Click Sign in again (or run Contral: Sign in). Once you're signed in, click Retry on the card to continue.

Using Contral without signing in#

Before you sign in, the extension lets you try 3 free builds without an account. After that you'll see "You've used your 3 free builds. Sign in for 25 free messages every day."

Everything else, including bring-your-own-key (BYOK) messages, web search and codebase analysis, needs a signed-in account, because usage is tracked per account.

Using one Contral account on several machines#

You can sign in with the same account on any of your own computers and editors. Your plan and usage limits belong to the account, so usage on every device counts toward the same daily and monthly limits. Sharing an account with other people isn't allowed under the Terms of Service↗.

Fixing sign-in problems#

If the browser never returns you to the editor, you get "state mismatch", or you're stuck in a sign-in loop, see Extension not loading or sign-in loop.