# Account & access (/protocol/account-and-access)

<Cards>
  <Card title="Sign up for free →" href="https://console.shelby.xyz" description="Sign up at console.shelby.xyz to get a bucket and an access key for it. The console shows your usage and your plan's limits." external />
</Cards>

## Projects, buckets and access keys

* **Projects** group your buckets. When you sign up, the console creates a default
  project with a bucket in it, so you can start right away. You can create as many
  projects as you need.
* **Buckets** hold your data. A project can have many buckets. The bucket in your default
  project is named for you, for example `shelby-managed-account-1`. You choose the name of
  each bucket you create.
* **Access keys** authenticate your requests. Each access key belongs to one bucket and
  can read and write only that bucket. A bucket can have more than one access key.

An access key has two parts, which S3 tools ask for under their own names:

| Part          | What it is                                     | In S3 tools       |
| ------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | ----------------- |
| Access key ID | Identifies the key. It starts with `SHLB`.     | Access key ID     |
| Secret        | Signs your requests. Treat it like a password. | Secret access key |

<Steps>
  <Step>
    ### Sign in to the console

    Go to [console.shelby.xyz](https://console.shelby.xyz) and sign in, or sign up. Every
    account starts on the [Free plan](/protocol/pricing#free-plan).
  </Step>

  <Step>
    ### Copy a bucket name and its access key

    In the console, copy the name of the bucket you want to use, and the access key ID and
    secret of one of that bucket's access keys. To start, use the bucket in your default
    project.

    Anyone who has the secret, with its access key ID, can read and write that bucket.
  </Step>

  <Step>
    ### Make your first request

    <Cards>
      <Card title="S3 API" href="/tools/s3-gateway" description="Use the AWS CLI, boto3, rclone or DuckDB." />

      <Card title="MCP server" href="/tools/mcp" description="Use Shelby from your agent client." />
    </Cards>
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Running at scale

Have larger-scale requirements? Talk to our team about managed onboarding or how Shelby
can support your use case.

<ContactForm topic="scale" />