Getting started

1. Sign in

Go to debrisguard.deepfieldlabs.dev and click Sign In. You have three options:

• Continue with Google — fastest; no password to remember.
• Email + password — uses our Cognito user pool; you'll receive a 6-digit verification code.
• Create account — same flow; we'll verify your email before you can sign in.

2. Your first lookup

The simplest thing you can do is look up a satellite by its NORAD ID.

Try the International Space Station — NORAD 25544. In the dashboard, type 25544 in the search box and press Enter. You'll see:

ISS (ZARYA)         orbit_class: LEO       altitude: 433 km
fused_score: 0.18   severity: info         alert: no
detectors_active: bstar_drift, catalog, manoeuvre

That's the API's enrichment block. The fused_score is on a 0–1 scale; anything ≥ 0.40 is flagged as an alert. ISS is nominal at 0.18.

3. Add a satellite to your watchlist

The Watcher tier lets you pin one NORAD; Analyst pins five. The dashboard's Watchlist panel filters the alert stream and the world map to your pinned satellites only.

1. Click Watchlist in the left rail (or visit /watchlist.html).
2. Enter a NORAD ID and click + Add.
3. Back on the dashboard, click the ★ Watchlist only chip above the alert stream to filter.

If you hit the tier cap, the API returns HTTP 409 with a clear message:

{"error":"tier 'watcher' allows up to 1 watchlist items (currently 1)"}

4. Open a forensic dossier

Every alerted object in the daily report has a signed forensic dossier (an HTML page with the underlying JSON sidecar). Click an alert row in the alert stream — or click a red dot on the world map — to open it.

The dossier shows:

• Object identity — name, NORAD, orbit class, current TLE epoch.
• Scoring trace — which detectors fired, with what weights.
• BSTAR-drift panel (when applicable) — 14-day sparkline + the z-score that triggered the flag.
• Manoeuvre fingerprint (when applicable) — pre/post mean motion, inclination, RAAN, eccentricity, argument of perigee, z-scores per element.
• Signature footer — HMAC-SHA256 over the canonical JSON. Use the "Verify this dossier" link to download the signed JSON and re-verify locally.

5. When to upgrade

• You're hitting 429 daily-limit errors every day → Analyst (5,000 lookups/day).
• You need to track more than one satellite → Analyst (5 NORADs) or Operator (25 NORADs).
• You want the dashboard to label alerts as bstar-drift / manoeuvre instead of generic "anomaly" → Analyst+.
• You want escalate / review / monitor chips on burn cards → Analyst+.
• You want Slack / Teams webhooks on new alerts → Operator+.
• You're a team and need 5 user seats → Operator.

Click your profile (top-right) → View tiers → Subscribe. Card is charged via Stripe; tier flips within ~30 seconds of payment.

6. Use the CLI from your terminal

Every dashboard action has a curl equivalent. For ad-hoc terminal work, grab a short-lived access token from the dashboard:

1. Profile (top-right) → CLI access → Copy access token.
2. Paste into your shell:

export DG_TOKEN='<paste-here>'
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $DG_TOKEN" \
  https://api.debrisguard.deepfieldlabs.dev/v1/objects/25544

The access token lasts ~60 minutes. For scheduled scripts (CI, GitHub Actions, backend services), generate an API key instead — it lives until you revoke it. Profile → API keys → + New key.

Full API reference: DebrisGuard API guide →

7. Get help

• Dashboard issues, billing, account: contact form on deepfieldlabs.dev
• API + integration: API guide first, then the contact form
• Bug reports / feature requests: GitHub Issues

Next: Dashboard tour →