Authoritative project documentation

ApiaryLens User Guide

Start Here

ApiaryLens keeps family apiary records available across phones, tablets, and computers while remaining usable when the yard has no signal. Your deployment operator gives you the HTTPS address and, for the first owner only, a one-time setup code.

1. Open the HTTPS address in Safari, Chrome, or Edge.
2. If this is a new family, choose Create the first family, enter the one-time setup code, and create the owner account. Otherwise, sign in or accept an invitation.
3. Use the browser's Add to Home Screen or Install app action.
4. Create an apiary and its first hive.
5. Open Inspect, record observations, photos, and follow-up work, then save a draft or complete the inspection.

Working Without a Connection

The installed PWA keeps the application shell and synchronized records on the device. New and edited records, inspection drafts, and staged photos are stored in the browser until a connection returns. The header shows connectivity and pending work. Sync now retries immediately.

Do not clear the browser's site data or uninstall the PWA while pending work is shown. A platform update also waits rather than forcing a reload while records or media remain pending.

Apiaries, Hives, and History

• Overview shows active hives, open follow-ups, pending synchronization, and the latest inspection for each hive.
• Apiaries creates and edits yards, locations, access notes, and archives.
• Hives records status, installation, origin, notes, queens, and essential box equipment.
• Inspect saves complete or resumable inspections, weather snapshots, photos, colony observations, and follow-ups.
• Care records mite counts, feeding, treatments, harvests, and tasks. The mite trend includes an accessible table as well as a chart.

Family Access

Owners can invite members and select owner, beekeeper, or viewer access. Viewers cannot create, edit, delete, upload, export, or administer data. Authorization is enforced by the server, not only by hidden buttons. Invitations and recovery codes are secrets; share them through a private channel.

Photos

Selected photos and thumbnails are staged locally first. ApiaryLens uploads them privately when online. Captions can be changed and media can be removed. Media URLs are authenticated; the storage bucket or filesystem is not public.

Export and Account Recovery

An owner can download a complete export from the management view. The ZIP includes a manifest, JSON data, CSV tables, and original photos. Store it somewhere you control. Recovery codes are single-use; after using one, sign in and create a new set through the family recovery workflow.

Demo Safety

demo.apiarylens.app contains synthetic records only. Resetting the demo clears its local browser workspace. Never enter real hive, family, account, or photo data into the public demo.

Help

See Troubleshooting for offline, sign-in, media, update, and deployment symptoms. Operators should use the Operations Guide.