Internal

The internal directory handles credential validation, email address lookup, and storage of account-level settings such as disk quotas and group memberships. It is suitable for deployments where Stalwart is the primary identity store and no external directory is in use. All account management, including the creation of new accounts, password changes, and quota adjustments, is carried out directly on the server.

Internally, account records are kept in the configured data store, which is where account information is written to and read from.

Configuration

The internal directory is selected by leaving directoryId unset on the Authentication singleton (found in the WebUI under Settings › Authentication › General). In that configuration Stalwart reads account records from the DataStore singleton (found in the WebUI under Settings › Storage › Data Store), and no external Directory object is required.

Account management

Account management is performed through the WebUI, the JMAP API, or the CLI, all of which operate on the same underlying objects (Account, AccountPassword, AppPassword, ApiKey, and related principals).