---
title: "Shared Password Protection"
description: "Whether you're using your HelpDocs internally to train staff, or just because they're not ready for the limelight yet, there's a load of reasons you might want to password protect your HelpDocs."
url: "https://support.helpdocs.io/article/mNAoCKyr6T-shared-password-protection"
category: "Authentication"
updated_at: "2025-04-07T10:28:33Z"
---

# Shared Password Protection

There are plenty of reasons you might want to password protect your HelpDocs Knowledge Base. Maybe you're using it internally for staff training or perhaps your docs aren't quite ready for public viewing yet.

### Setting Up a Shared Password

Adding password protection to your Knowledge Base is super simple. Here's how to set up a shared password that visitors will need to enter before accessing your docs:

[Embedded iframe](https://player.vimeo.com/video/1073149419)

1. Head to **Settings** > **Access** > **Options**
2. Head to **Restrict access** and toggle **Enabled Shared Password** on
3. Under **Shared Password** enter a password of your choice
4. Click **Save Changes**

Remember you'll need to share this password with your team, so avoid using anything that's personally sensitive to you ✋

That's it! Now anyone visiting your site will need to enter the password before they can read any of your docs.

![Password protection screen](https://files.helpdocs.io/Ytt2uahFxY/articles/mNAoCKyr6T/1611856934308/screen-shot-2021-01-28-at-18-01-55.png)

### Using Team Passwords for Single Sign On

You can automatically log in users by sending the team password through as an **hd\_team** query parameter. Example: your-domain.helpdocs.io/?hd\_team=password

Team passwords work great when you need to set up docs that only users logged into your app can view.

#### Dropping the Cookie

The easiest approach is to load HelpDocs in an iframe on your dashboard when people log in. Include the team password in the query string to set a cookie that keeps them logged in.

Here's the basic URL structure:

`https://<your-helpdocs>.helpdocs.io/_hd/team_sso?hd_team=<your-team-password>`

Use this iframe snippet to get started:

```html
<iframe src="https://<your-helpdocs>.helpdocs.io/_hd/team_sso?hd_team=<your-team-password>" width="0" height="0" style="display: none"></iframe>
```

You can customize several parameters:

| Query Parameter | Description                                                                      | Default Value |
|-----------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------|
| hd\_team        | Your shared team password                                                        | `undefined`   |
| duration        | How long (in days) users with this cookie stay logged in                         | `30`          |
| redirect\_uri   | Where to redirect users after dropping a cookie (usually not needed for iframes) | `undefined`   |

To log a user out of HelpDocs, pass an empty string as the password or set the cookie duration to a negative value

If you use a custom domain, be sure to replace your HelpDocs subdomain with your custom domain in the URLs above

#### Redirecting Logged Out Users

When a user hasn't visited your site for a while, their cookie expires. You might want to override the default HelpDocs team password login page with a redirect to your own app.

Add this snippet to **Settings** &gt; **Code** &gt; **Javascript**:

```javascript
<script type="text/javascript">    (function() {        if (window.location.pathname.indexOf('/team-login') === 0) {                        // Parse query string parameters            var qs = function (a) {              if (a === '') return {};              var b = {};              for (var i = 0; i < a.length; i += 1) {                var p = a[i].split('=', 2);                if (p.length === 1) {                  b[p[0]] = '';                } else {                  b[p[0]] = decodeURIComponent(p[1].replace(/\+/g, ' '));                }              }              return b;            }(window.location.search.substr(1).split('&'));            var redirectUri = 'https://your-app.your-domain.com'; // Replace this with your login page URL            if (typeof qs.forward === 'string') redirectUri += '?hd_url=' + qs.forward;            return window.location.href = redirectUri;        }    })();</script>
```

For a better user experience, your developers can set up a redirect back to the specific HelpDocs article after login by extracting the `hd_url` query parameter.

### Passing User Data to Your Template

Want to identify users in your docs? You can pass user data in the URL query parameter when using an iframe or redirect.

The data should be JSON-encoded and sent as a **hd\_user\_data** query parameter:

`https://helpdocs.your-custom-domain.com/_hd/team_sso?hd_team=password-here&hd_user_data={"name":"Taylor","user_id":"1"}`

Need to access that data? Check out [our guide on accessing user data in HelpDocs](/article/Jl8mlpIkMQ-accessing-user-data-in-help-docs).