Deployment mode

A single environment variable switches Tether between three modes that control billing, asset limits, and the availability of the demo reset endpoint.

Modes

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# In .env:
DEPLOYMENT_MODE=selfhosted    # default
DEPLOYMENT_MODE=saas
DEPLOYMENT_MODE=demo

selfhosted (default)

No asset limits, no billing page, no upgrade prompts. All features are fully available. The Plan page (accessible from the MSP sidebar) shows a message explaining that this is a self-hosted installation with no limits.

This is the correct mode for the vast majority of users — anyone running Tether on their own VPS, bare-metal server, or internal infrastructure.

saas

Enables the full billing and tier system. When this mode is active:

• New installations start on a 30-day free trial with a 250 asset limit
• A usage bar appears in the MSP sidebar showing current assets vs. the plan limit
• At 80% usage a warning banner appears on the MSP dashboard
• At 100% usage attempts to create assets or import CSVs return 402 Payment Required with a clear error message
• The Plan page shows tier options and a contact link to upgrade

Tiers

Clients and users are unlimited on every tier. Only managed assets (total across all tenants) count toward the limit.

Managing tiers

Tier changes are applied via the API after a customer pays. Tether does not include built-in payment processing — integrate Stripe or your preferred payment provider and call this endpoint on successful payment:

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PUT /api/billing/tier
Authorization: Bearer {msp-admin-token}
Content-Type: application/json

{{
  "tier": "growth",
  "billing_email": "billing@theirclient.com",
  "notes": "Stripe customer ID: cus_abc123"
}}

What happens when the limit is reached

When a tenant reaches or exceeds their asset limit:

• POST /api/assets returns 402 Payment Required with the message: "Asset limit reached for your Growth plan (1000/1000 assets). Please upgrade to add more."
• CSV imports are blocked with the same 402 response
• Existing assets are unaffected — they can still be edited, checked out, and deleted
• The limit lifts immediately when the tier is upgraded via the API

demo

Same as selfhosted but also mounts the reset endpoint:

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POST /api/admin/demo-reset
X-Reset-Secret: your-reset-secret

This endpoint wipes the entire database and reseeds it with 4 tenants, 40 assets, checkout history, and open requests. It is called by a Cloudflare Worker cron every hour. The RESET_SECRET environment variable protects it from unauthorised calls.