3  Signup

You need a synth token to use synthclient. To obtain one, you’ll need to submit a request that we approve by hand; this may take a few days. This page guides you through obtaining a synth token.

3.1 Generating a certificate request

Fill out this form and download the three files it generates:

  • companyname-leaf.certr: This is a certificate request. You will send this file to SecureDNA as detailed below.
  • companyname-leaf.priv: This is a private key, protected by your passphrase. Do not send this to SecureDNA, do not lose it, and do not share it.1
  • companyname-leaf.pub: This is a public key, which can be freely shared. You do not need it for the scenarios described in this quickstart, but you should preserve it for future use in more-complicated scenarios.

The name and email in the above command are baked into the resulting certificate. If we later detect some problem with the use of your certificate (such as abuse), we will send mail to that email address.

Note

Pick a secure passphrase and hold onto it. If you lose it, you’ll have to create a new certificate request. We’ll call it passphrase A.

The passphrase you pick in this form is never sent to SecureDNA. In fact, the form works fully offline.

3.2 Sending your certificate request

Fill out the registration form on this page. Upload companyname-leaf.certr where indicated.

Someone at SecureDNA will review your request for reasonability, and send you a company-leaf.cert file (without the r) via email.

3.3 Generating synth tokens

Your .cert file can be used to create synth tokens .st. How many you make depends on how your business is structured.

  • If you are a centralized provider, you can make a single token for all of your screening, and supply that token with every request.
  • If you are a benchtop manufacturer, you should make one token per printer.2 (Consider using the command-line tools to automate this.)

You can create synth tokens in the browser here, using your cert and private key. Select the purpose of your token, then fill out the remaining fields.

Important

This token has its own passphrase, distinct from the one you selected for the certificate request. We’ll call it passphrase B.

This is the passphrase you will supply when running the SecureDNA software.

3.4 Using your synth token

Now you have a synth token (.st). With it, you can use synthclient, as detailed in the next chapter.

  1. If you send it to SecureDNA by mistake, we will ask you to generate a new certificate request and to throw away the existing request.↩︎

  2. If your printers are “dumb” peripherals, then make one per controller, or one per customer site, or (if cloud-based) one per customer account, etc.↩︎