Your recovery kit

Your recovery kit is the master key to your account. You save it when your identity is first created, and Komms never holds a copy.

Important

Anyone who holds your recovery kit can take over your account immediately, close it, and move the value it holds. There is no waiting period that protects you from someone who has your kit.

Keep it safe#

• Store it offline: printed, or in a password manager you trust.
• Never paste it into a website, a chat or an email. Komms will never ask for it.
• Don't keep it on the same device you use Komms on.

Getting back in#

• New phone or laptop? Sign in with a synced passkey if you have one.
• Lost every device? Use your recovery kit to restore your account on a new device. Your history comes back from your encrypted backup, for messages still within their retention period in conversations that allow backups. Public channels can be read again as normal.

If you lose your kit but can still sign in#

You can replace a lost kit, but it takes 14 days:

1. Start the replacement from a signed-in device. Your other devices are warned.
2. Keep using Komms as normal while you wait.
3. After 14 days, confirm the replacement and save the new kit.

Replacing a kit needs a small deposit, which you get back when you confirm, plus two small network fees that you pay yourself. If someone holding your old kit tries to take over during the wait, they can. The wait is there to stop you being locked out, not to stop a thief.

If your kit is stolen#

If someone else may have your recovery words, act quickly:

• Move what you need out of your account and export your history.
• Start a new identity. Changing keys within an identity whose recovery words are known to someone else doesn't make it safe again.

Recovery onto completely fresh keys, without starting a new identity, is coming soon.

Recovery costs#

Komms covers the network cost of one recovery per account every 30 days. Further recoveries in that period, and replacing a lost kit, are paid by you from your wallet.