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A new on-premises installation starts on the Community plan. That plan is issued locally during first boot. You do not need a key from CaseBender to begin using the product. Paid plans (Pro and Enterprise) are issued by CaseBender against this appliance’s Installation ID. Open Settings → License as a Super Admin or Organization Admin.

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What the License page shows

  • Current plan (Community, Pro, or Enterprise)
  • Seat count
  • Expiration date, when the plan has a term
  • Installation ID, a stable public identifier such as CBI-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
  • Contact sales, which opens a mail draft that already includes the Installation ID
The Installation ID identifies this deployment. It is not a secret and is safe to copy into a license request. Settings never displays LICENSE_SECRET_KEY. Do not send that value to CaseBender.

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Request a paid license

1

Copy the Installation ID

Open Settings → License and copy the Installation ID. Operators can also print it from the installation host:
The command prints only the Installation ID. It never prints LICENSE_SECRET_KEY.
2

Send the ID to CaseBender

Use Contact sales on the License page, or email CaseBender with the Installation ID, the plan you need, the number of seats, and the term.
3

Paste the key you receive

Select Upgrade to Pro or Update your license, paste the full key into the dialog, and save. The same field accepts a new paid key and a key you already applied on this installation.
The key is bound to this Installation ID. A key issued for a different appliance will not activate here.

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Community plan

Community includes 1 user and does not expire. Invite and account-creation paths enforce that seat limit on the server. To add analysts, request a paid key. A paid key declares the seat count and the expiration date. CaseBender re-reads the key on the appliance; the date stored in the database is not the source of truth.
  • While the term is valid, Super Admins and Organization Admins can change the deployment as usual.
  • After the term ends, CaseBender keeps a short grace period so you can apply a renewal key without interrupting investigations.
  • When grace ends, the appliance becomes read-only until you apply a renewed key. Existing cases remain visible; writes are blocked.
Applying a key does not require outbound access to CaseBender. Air-gapped installations can paste a key received over an approved offline channel.

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After you apply a key

  • Keep the Installation ID with your runbooks. It does not rotate when Community is refreshed or when you upgrade the images.
  • Back up .env with the rest of the installation. New installs write CASEBENDER_INSTALLATION_ID there so web, API, and worker share the same ID.
  • Rebuilding the appliance on a new host creates a new Installation ID. Ask CaseBender for a key bound to the new ID; do not reuse a key from the previous host.
Do not paste .env, LICENSE_SECRET_KEY, database URLs, or other secrets into a license request. The Installation ID is the only identifier CaseBender needs to issue a paid key.

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