Using Aura Without an Account

Aura is browsable without signing in. A "guest" is anyone viewing the site with no active session - they've followed a shared link, landed on Explore from search, or are just looking around before creating an account. This page covers exactly what a guest can do freely, what redirects them straight to sign-in, and what shows a sign-in prompt without blocking the page underneath.

What a guest can do freely

No account is needed for any of the following:

• Browse Explore - the Companions and Creators tabs, search, sort, and grid/list view all work with no session. See The Explore Page.
• View a creator's public profile - anyone can open a creator's page and see all of their public companions, whether signed in or not.
• Open a companion and chat - clicking a companion card navigates straight to the companion with no auth check. If the companion isn't interaction-gated (see below), a guest can start a full text or voice conversation, use suggested prompts, and send messages - same as a signed-in user.
• View a shared companion link (/share/assistants/[id]) - the public share page a companion's link resolves to. It renders the same chat surface as above, so the same freely-available behavior applies.

Nothing here requires a session; a guest who never signs in can still hold a complete conversation with any public, non-gated companion.

What redirects to sign-in immediately

The (protected) route group - Collections, Chat History, Dashboard, and Settings - is wrapped in AuthGuard. A guest who navigates to any of these is redirected straight to the sign-in page (signIn() from NextAuth) before anything renders. There is no partial view, preview, or read-only mode: the guard runs on mount and the protected content never paints for a signed-out visitor.

What prompts a sign-in without blocking the page

Two guest actions open a sign-in/sign-up prompt instead of a hard redirect - the surrounding page stays visible and usable.

Save (the heart icon)

Clicking the heart icon on a companion card, or the equivalent Save action on a companion's own page, opens a small popover (CompanionAuthPrompt) anchored to the button, rather than navigating anywhere:

• Two pills at the top read Favourites and Chat history.
• Heading: "Save to your collection."
• Subtext: "Keep your favourite companions and revisit past conversations anytime."
• Two buttons: Sign in and Create free account, both linking to /auth/signin / /auth/signup with a callbackUrl back to the page the guest was on, so they land back where they started after authenticating.

Saving itself always requires an account - a guest can browse and chat, but a companion can't be bookmarked to a collection until they sign in.

The "Want your own AI companion?" nudge

On a non-gated public companion's chat screen, a small line appears centered under the input box, but only while a guest hasn't started a session yet (it disappears once a session begins) and only for companions that are not interaction-gated:

Want your own AI companion? Get started free

"Get started free" links to /auth/signup?callbackUrl=/assistants. This is a soft nudge, not a block - dismissing or ignoring it doesn't affect the guest's ability to keep chatting.

Interaction-gated companions

A creator can turn on Sign-in Required for their companion (Companion profile → Access tab, "Restrict access to authenticated users only"). This is separate from the Save/Collections prompts above - it gates the conversation itself:

• With the toggle off (default): "Open to Everyone" - anyone can chat, no account needed.
• With the toggle on: "Members Only" - sign-in required before chatting.

For a guest visiting an interaction-gated companion's public page, the chat screen still renders normally - greeting, suggested prompts, and the input bar are all visible. But the moment the guest clicks a suggested prompt or submits a message, no session starts. Instead, a sign-in popup window opens immediately (/auth/signin in a centered popup, polled for completion) and the attempted message is held so it can resume automatically once they've signed in. A guest on a gated companion never gets a single reply without an account - the block happens at the first send, not before.

Related pages

• The Explore Page - what's available in Explore Mode overall.
• Discovering Creators - creator profile visibility.
• Saving Companions - the full save flow for signed-in users.
• Starting a Conversation - how chat sessions begin.