Archon

Getting started

Archon is the data-integrity and accreditation system for laboratories that cannot use the cloud — a self-hosted electronic lab notebook with a tamper-evident audit trail underneath everything.

If your laboratory already runs Archon, your administrator will have given you a URL — something like https://archon.yourlab.org. Open it and sign in, or accept the invitation email if you were invited to a specific study. There is nothing to install to use Archon in a browser; the desktop app is optional.

What’s in these docs

  • The lab workflow — how projects, the electronic lab notebook, samples, protocols and compliance fit together.
  • Desktop app — installing Archon as a native app on Windows, macOS or Linux, and what offline mode does and doesn’t do.
  • API reference and webhooks — connecting instruments, scripts and other lab systems to Archon.
  • FAQ and Support — common questions, and how to reach us.

First steps in a new organization

  1. Sign in at your deployment’s URL, or follow an invitation link sent by your lab administrator.
  2. Pick a project from the sidebar, or ask an owner/admin to create one — the electronic lab notebook, samples and protocols are all organized under projects.
  3. Open the ELN and create your first notebook entry. Entries stay editable as drafts; finalizing one is a deliberate, one-way action that captures an electronic signature — see the lab workflow.
  4. Check Settings → Members if you’re an owner or admin, to invite the rest of your team and set roles.

This is a self-hosted deployment

Unlike a cloud ELN, your laboratory’s Archon instance runs on infrastructure your organization controls — by default, nothing leaves the server it runs on. That has one practical consequence worth knowing up front: there is no central Archon login. Every deployment has its own URL and its own accounts. If you work with more than one laboratory, you may need more than one URL bookmarked.