Demo Mode (Read-only)

Purpose

• Put the app into a safe, read-only demonstration state so visitors can view data and flows but cannot change state.
• Useful for demos, screenshots, or sharing an example DB.
• Hosted demo credentials: username demo, password demo

Enable

In the main .env:

DEMO_MODE=true
# optional: path to the demo sqlite file the backend should open when demo mode is enabled
DEMO_DB_PATH=./backend/invio-demo.db

Restart the backend after changing env.

Behavior (summary)

Backend

• When DEMO_MODE is true, mutating admin endpoints return HTTP 403 with JSON { "error": "Read-only demo mode: cannot <action>" }.
• If DEMO_DB_PATH is set, the backend will open that SQLite file instead of the regular DATABASE_PATH while demo mode is enabled (so all requests operate against the demo DB file).
• The server-side guards are authoritative — even manual API calls are blocked.
• Implementation location: admin.ts (guard checks are near each mutating admin handler).

Frontend

• The UI shows a prominent demo banner.
• Write controls remain visible but are disabled client-side (keeps UX discoverable). Buttons are disabled using DaisyUI patterns:
  • <button class="btn" disabled="disabled"> or
  • <button class="btn btn-disabled" tabIndex="-1" role="button" aria-disabled="true">
• Controls still emit requests if a user forces them, but backend will reject with 403.
• Read-only endpoints (list/read) continue to work (invoices HTML/PDF, listing endpoints, public shares).

What is blocked

Typical blocked actions (examples):

• Create/update/delete invoices, customers, templates
• Publish/unpublish/duplicate invoices
• Install templates from manifests, load-from-file
• Update settings (PUT/PATCH)
• The exact guarded routes are in backend/src/routes/admin.ts.

How to prepare a demo DB

Local copy (recommended):

# copy your current DB to a demo file
cp ./invio.db ./backend/invio-demo.db

# enable demo mode in .env
DEMO_MODE=true
DEMO_DB_PATH=./backend/invio-demo.db

# restart backend
# (local dev) run your usual start task

Docker compose (bind-mount approach):

1. Place demo file at repository path: invio-demo.db
2. Add a bind in docker-compose.yml for the backend service:

services:
  backend:
    ...
    volumes:
      - invio_data:/app/data
      - ./backend/invio-demo.db:/app/data/invio-demo.db

3. Set env in .env:

DEMO_MODE=true
DEMO_DB_PATH=/app/data/invio-demo.db

4. Recreate backend:

docker compose down
docker compose up -d --build backend

Revert

Turn off demo:

DEMO_MODE=false
# or remove DEMO_MODE and DEMO_DB_PATH from .env
# restart backend