You control membership
Circlus has no public people search. Members enter through invitations created by someone who is allowed to invite them.
Practical guide
Manage your Circle with confidence.
A practical guide for the person who creates a Circle, invites members, controls access, and keeps the trusted space understandable and safe.
What it means to be the Circle owner
The owner controls membership and product-level rules. The server administrator controls infrastructure; these can be different people.
You define the trust boundary
Review active invitations, participant roles, devices, and public or guest entry points.
You need not administer the VPS
Another person may run updates and backups. Agree in advance who handles outages, domains, and migration.
If the Circle runs on someone else’s server, that administrator affects availability, updates, backups, and technical logs. Message and file content is designed to remain encrypted on participant devices.
Create your first Circle
A new Circle is normally created after its server is reachable over HTTPS. Joining an existing Circle is a different flow and usually starts from an invite link.
Open the official client
Use web.circlus.org or the installed Android app. The same identity can later be added to other trusted devices.
Connect the empty server
Enter its HTTPS address and short-lived server claim token. If the Circle already exists, use an invitation instead.
Create the owner identity
This profile and its keys authorize owner decisions. Protect the device and complete the recovery setup.
Name and verify the Circle
Choose a recognizable name and confirm the technical Circle address before inviting other people.
Add a recovery path
Add another trusted device or trusted participant and save the Recovery Package before expanding the Circle.
A good sequence is: create the Circle, secure recovery, test a second device, and only then invite the wider group.
Invite members
An invitation is the normal way to add a full member. Send it only to the intended person and revoke unused links.
Regular invitation
Use it for family, colleagues, or friends who should participate in the full trusted space.
Limited lifetime
Prefer short validity and the minimum necessary number of uses. Create a fresh invite when needed.
Re-invitation
If someone lost access, first inspect their old devices and identity state instead of blindly creating duplicate identities.
Use guest links deliberately
A guest link is for a person who should contact you or a team without seeing all members or joining the whole Circle.
Choose the right scenario
Use separate links for support, clients, or public contact so each entry point has a clear purpose.
Limit what guests see
A guest enters the configured contact flow rather than receiving general Circle membership.
Review public links
Revoke links that are no longer needed and avoid mixing public incoming contacts with a private family Circle.
Members and devices
Access belongs not only to a person but also to their approved devices. Device hygiene is part of Circle security.
A member loses a device
Revoke the missing device and use the documented recovery or device-enrollment flow.
A person leaves
Remove or disable future access. Data already stored locally on their devices cannot be remotely erased.
A member adds another device
Use the trusted enrollment flow and verify which identity and Circle the new device will receive.
Something looks suspicious
Pause new invitations, inspect active devices and roles, and contact the server administrator if infrastructure may be involved.
Daily operation and migration
The owner need not be a system administrator, but should understand the decisions that affect availability and long-term access.
Review active entry points
Periodically inspect invitations, guest links, roles, and trusted devices.
Keep an external contact path
Have another way to reach participants if the Circle, device, server, or domain becomes unavailable.
Coordinate server maintenance
Agree who handles updates, backups, monitoring, domain renewal, and incident response.
Move through the dedicated procedure
If the Circle needs another server or domain, prepare the destination first and follow the Circle migration guide.
For a long-lived Circle, at least two trusted people should know how to restore access or reach the server administrator.