The Admin Console (product name EMS SolarFlow Admin) is the local browser UI for setup and maintenance. It runs next to EMS, not inside the control loop. EMS still owns the control logic; the Admin Console is UI and orchestration only.
The Admin Console is a Docker path. Run it only on a trusted local machine.
- first setup
- device discovery
- config generation
- diagnostics
- updates
- backups
- restore
The Admin Console start screen detects your install state and recommends one of two flows. It never acts silently.
- Set up a new system — for a fresh install or a deliberate reinstall. See the Admin setup guide.
- Manage my existing system — for updates, config changes, diagnostics, backups and restore. See the Admin maintenance guide.
Mutating actions preview the change and ask for confirmation. Config apply, guided upgrade and restore back up what they replace first.
When Admin updates itself during a guided upgrade, the browser may briefly show a reconnect screen. Admin alignment is an automatic stage of the upgrade — see Admin alignment (automatic).
Two short demos (no audio, demo data only — fake devices, IPs, serials and versions) show the main Admin Console workflows. Each demo ships in two formats — MP4/H.264 (best for forums and mobile browsers) preferred, with WebM as a fallback. If your Markdown viewer does not play a video inline, use a download link under it — a static screenshot of the same workflow is shown as a fallback.
Start page → pick a release → discover devices → review the generated config and feature settings → start EMS and open the dashboard.
Upgrade plan → run the EMS upgrade → the "Upgrade validation" box ticks off each step (backup, config-key add, image pull, container recreate) with a green check until the upgrade completes.
Individual per-screen images live in docs/assets/screenshots/admin/. To refresh the videos or screenshots for a new release, see the capture guide and docs/assets/videos/admin/README.md.
Three menus sit at the top right, next to the sign-out button: Theme, Style and Density. They are there before you sign in, so you can set them on the login page.
The Theme menu offers twelve palettes, all dark:
| Signal | the default, and what the console has always looked like |
| Instrument, Graphite | neutral greys, no colour cast in the background |
| Fjord, Blueprint, Indigo | cool blues, from slate to deep violet |
| Viridian, Phosphor | green: an instrument panel, and a CRT |
| Copper, Oxide | warm metal and rust |
| Contrast | the hardest separation between text and background |
| Void | near-black, with the accent carrying the light |
Beside it sits the Style menu. It changes how things are built, not what colour they are, and the two are independent -- any of the twelve palettes can be worn with any of these thirteen:
| Glass | the default, and what the product has always looked like |
| Console | a terminal: hairline frame, no fill, a rail down the left |
| Instrument | a panel front: raised fill, a thin crown along the top |
| Rail | no frame at all; the left edge and a divider carry the structure |
| Tab | a filing tab: a fill with a heavier crown above it |
| Underline | a list rather than a stack of cards: one rule between rows |
| Bracket | a technical drawing: corner ticks instead of a frame |
| Inset | pressed into the page rather than laid on it |
| Slab | solid blocks, no frame, no rounding |
| Halo | lifted, with the light coming from underneath |
| Soft | further from the corner, and floating |
| Outline | the frame does all the work |
| Brutal | a heavy frame and a hard shadow, square everywhere |
A style never moves anything. Padding, spacing and text size are the same in all thirteen, so a layout that fits in one fits in all of them.
Third is a Density menu. It changes neither colour nor shape but how much room everything takes -- one setting that multiplies every distance on the page at once:
| Compact | three quarters of the spacing; more on screen at a time |
| Normal | the default, and what the product has always looked like |
| Roomy | a quarter more spacing, for a screen you read from further away |
Density moves things; that is what it is for. It does not change type size, and it leaves the pills and badges alone, because those are fitted to the words they hold rather than to the rhythm of the page.
The three menus are independent: any of the twelve palettes can be worn with any of the thirteen styles at any of the three densities.
Each strip below is the same page three times, with one axis changed and the other two left at their defaults.
Palettes — left to right: Signal, Void, Copper. Only colour changes; nothing moves and nothing changes shape.
Object styles — left to right: Glass, Console, Brutal. The colours are identical in all three; what changes is the frame, the fill and the corners.
Densities — left to right: Compact, Normal, Roomy. Same colour, same shape, different amount of room. Compact fits more on the screen at once; Roomy is easier to read from further away.
A theme changes colour only, a style changes shape only, and a density changes distance only. No control changes what it does and no reading changes its meaning — a warning stays a warning in every combination of the three.
All three choices are stored in your browser, so they follow neither your login nor the appliance: another browser, or another machine, starts at Signal, Glass and Normal again. Clearing site data resets them.
They are applied before the page is drawn, so switching and reloading does not flash the defaults first.
- EMS still runs the control loop and remains the source of truth.
- EMS owns config semantics and backup/restore behavior — every backup is a normal EMS backup archive.
- Docker is the runtime. The Admin Console orchestrates EMS containers; it does not replace them.
| Path | Purpose |
|---|---|
config/config.json |
EMS config |
data/ |
EMS runtime data (state, history, optional analytics) |
data/backups/ |
EMS backup archives |
data/admin/ |
Admin Console state, temporary files and logs |
Install and start the Admin Console in a local EMS folder:
mkdir -p ems-solarflow-api-control
cd ems-solarflow-api-control
curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/basecubedev/ems-solarflow-api-control/main/deploy/admin/install-admin-console.sh
sh install-admin-console.shThen open:
http://127.0.0.1:8090
The Admin Console uses the same password as the EMS Dashboard.
On the first start, if no password exists yet, the first browser user creates it.
The password is stored in config/dashboard-auth.json and is shared with EMS.
After that, log in with the EMS Dashboard password.
The default uses host networking. EMS SolarFlow is a local LAN system, so
host networking lets discovery see the LAN more like a local host process, which
is the most reliable mode. The UI is then also reachable from another device on
your LAN at http://<host-ip>:8090.
Bridge networking is available with --bridge:
sh install-admin-console.sh --bridgeIn bridge mode the container is isolated from the host network, Docker port
publishing controls how the UI is reached (127.0.0.1:8090 by default), and
automatic LAN discovery can be less reliable — enter your LAN CIDR manually if a
scan sees only Docker networks.
Contributors who build from source use deploy/admin/start-admin-setup.sh.
See the Developer Setup guide.
The Admin Console uses HTTP on port 8090 by default.
You can optionally enable a second HTTPS listener on port 8091 with --https:
sh install-admin-console.sh --httpsHTTP stays available, so you are not locked out if your browser does not trust
the generated certificate. HTTPS is an additional URL
(https://<host>:8091), never a redirect.
If the Admin Console generates a self-signed certificate, your browser will show a certificate warning. This is expected for local installations. Use HTTPS only if you understand this warning or provide your own trusted certificate.
Do not expose the Admin Console HTTP or HTTPS ports to the internet.
The Admin Console is designed for a trusted local EMS host or trusted LAN. The Zendure local APIs are not encrypted. Do not expose the Admin Console — or the EMS ports — to the internet. A deployment-capable Admin container controls the host Docker engine, which is effectively root-equivalent.
Full technical reference: admin-discovery.md.