User Registration

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Sigra ships a complete, enumeration-safe registration flow: a LiveView form, a context function, Argon2id password hashing, and a confirmation email. This guide covers the happy path, common customizations, the confirmation lifecycle, and how to test it.

What Sigra gives you

  • MyAppWeb.UserRegistrationLive — generated LiveView that renders the form and submits to Accounts.register_user/2. You own it; edit the template freely.
  • MyApp.Accounts.register_user/2 — the context function that calls Sigra.Auth.register/3 with the generated changeset. This is where you add custom side effects (welcome email, analytics, billing signup).
  • MyApp.Accounts.User.registration_changeset/2 — the Ecto changeset. Validates email format, password length, password complexity, and email uniqueness. Hashes the password via Sigra.Crypto.hash_password/1 on prepare_changes.
  • MyApp.Accounts.deliver_user_confirmation_instructions/2 — sends a signed, 24-hour TTL confirmation token to the user's email via the configured mailer.
  • Sigra.Auth.register/3 — the library-level primitive. Handles audit logging, telemetry spans, and the enumeration-safe {:error, :email_taken} return shape.

Happy path

The generator produces this in lib/my_app/accounts.ex:

def register_user(attrs, opts \\ []) do
  Sigra.Auth.register(Repo, attrs,
    changeset_fn: &User.registration_changeset(%User{}, &1),
    audit_schema: AuditEvent
  )
end

And this in lib/my_app_web/live/user_registration_live.ex:

def handle_event("save", %{"user" => user_params}, socket) do
  case Accounts.register_user(user_params) do
    {:ok, user} ->
      {:ok, _} =
        Accounts.deliver_user_confirmation_instructions(
          user,
          &url(~p"/users/confirm/#{&1}")
        )

      {:noreply,
       socket
       |> put_flash(:info, "Check your email to confirm your account.")
       |> push_navigate(to: ~p"/users/log-in")}

    {:error, %Ecto.Changeset{} = changeset} ->
      {:noreply, assign(socket, form: to_form(changeset))}
  end
end

That's the whole flow. Hashing, validation, enumeration prevention, and audit logging are all handled for you.

Enumeration-safe error handling

Sigra.Auth.register/3 returns:

  • {:ok, user} — success
  • {:error, %Ecto.Changeset{}} — validation error (format, length, confirmation mismatch)
  • {:error, :email_taken} — the email is already registered

Important: render the same message for :email_taken as for "email was sent" if an attacker can see the response. A common pattern is to show "If an account exists, we sent a confirmation email" on both branches. Or, accept the tradeoff and show "Email is already taken" — enumeration is mitigated by rate limiting.

Requiring confirmation before login

By default, users can log in before confirming their email. To enforce confirmation, set require_confirmation: true in your Sigra config:

# config/config.exs
config :my_app, MyApp.Auth.Config,
  repo: MyApp.Repo,
  user_schema: MyApp.Accounts.User,
  require_confirmation: true

Now UserAuth.log_in_user/3 rejects unconfirmed users with {:error, :unconfirmed} and the login form shows "Please confirm your email before logging in."

Customizing the changeset

Add custom validations by extending User.registration_changeset/2:

def registration_changeset(user, attrs) do
  user
  |> cast(attrs, [:email, :password, :display_name])
  |> validate_required([:display_name])
  |> validate_length(:display_name, min: 2, max: 50)
  |> Sigra.User.registration_changeset(attrs)  # email + password validation
end

The Sigra.User.registration_changeset/2 helper applies the standard email format, password complexity, and uniqueness validation. Your custom validations run before or after it — your choice.

Adding welcome-email side effects

Hook into register_user/2 in your Accounts context:

def register_user(attrs, opts \\ []) do
  case Sigra.Auth.register(Repo, attrs, changeset_fn: &User.registration_changeset(%User{}, &1)) do
    {:ok, user} = result ->
      # Welcome email is separate from confirmation email
      Task.Supervisor.start_child(MyApp.TaskSupervisor, fn ->
        MyApp.Mailer.deliver_welcome_email(user)
      end)

      result

    error ->
      error
  end
end

For guaranteed delivery, use Oban instead of Task.Supervisor:

MyApp.Workers.SendWelcomeEmail.new(%{user_id: user.id}) |> Oban.insert()

Testing

test "registers a user with a hashed password" do
  attrs = %{"email" => "alice@example.com", "password" => "supersecret12"}

  assert {:ok, user} = Accounts.register_user(attrs)
  assert user.email == "alice@example.com"
  Sigra.Testing.assert_password_hashed(user)
end

test "sends a confirmation email" do
  {:ok, user} = Accounts.register_user(%{"email" => "bob@example.com", "password" => "supersecret12"})

  Accounts.deliver_user_confirmation_instructions(user, &"/confirm/#{&1}")

  Sigra.Testing.assert_email_sent(to: "bob@example.com", subject: "Confirm")
end

See Testing Auth Flows for fixtures, scenario setup, and the full Sigra.Testing helper list.