Onboarding

Getting from "I want to try Nucleus" to "I've got a working hub" is a five-step flow. It usually takes 1–2 business days end-to-end, gated on the federation-request approval step.

1. Sign up

Visit https://app.nucleuslms.io/signup and create an account with your work email. You'll be sent a verification link — click it before doing anything else. Until you verify, you can log in but you can't submit a federation request.

You're created as a hub admin by default. The role ladder is described in Users & roles.

2. Submit a federation request

Once verified, you'll land on the request form:

• Federation slug — short, lowercase, dashes-only. This becomes part of every spoke's URL by default. Pick something stable; changing it later is painful.
• Hub display name — what your users see in the top of the Moodle.
• Tier — Standard or Dedicated. See Billing & plans for the differences.
• Federation mode — content, identity, or both. See Federation modes.

Submit and you'll see "request pending review". The form's read-only after this; you can resubmit if you got something wrong.

3. Wait for approval

A Nucleus operator reviews your request — usually within one business day. We're checking that the slug is available, the email domain matches what you signed up with, and that there's nothing obviously off about the metadata.

You'll get an email when it's approved (or rejected with a reason). Approval moves you to the checkout step.

4. Checkout

Click through to Stripe's hosted checkout. Pay with a card or invoice (Dedicated tier only). On successful payment:

• Your hub starts provisioning automatically. You don't need to take any action.
• A 14-day money-back guarantee starts. If it's not for you, request a refund from /billing and we'll cancel + refund within 5 business days.

5. Hub provisioning

Provisioning takes 3–8 minutes. You'll see a status indicator on /hub:

• Provisioning — Helm release rolling out. Wait.
• Running — done. Click through to your Moodle. The bootstrap admin credentials are emailed to the address you signed up with.

Once you can log in to the Moodle, you're ready to provision your first spoke. See Provisioning spokes.