# Join a team's World

Ask your team for its platform URL, the organization/World name and the intended scope. You do not need to administer a host to use a shared World.

## Before signing in

Install the same exact application dependencies as the team with `npm ci`. Read the team's selected vendors, seed, handlers and data provenance. A clone or vendor refresh may contain real records; synthetic local defaults do not establish that all shared Worlds are synthetic.

For a platform, run this in the app directory, using the URL your team supplied:

```console
$ npx volter login <platform-url>
```

The command prints a link and code. The person approves them in their browser; an agent cannot approve the sign-in. The [hosted-product guide](./use-the-hosted-product.md) describes platform keys. A directly served host instead uses a scoped token supplied by its administrator; [share a World](./share-a-world.md) owns that flow.

After approval, `npx volter whoami` shows the platform, signed-in person and organizations you
can reach. If the organization or World is missing, ask its administrator for access; do not
create a similarly named World to work around it. An expired CLI session is a sign-in problem,
not a reason to reset local data. Use the team-provided URL again to sign in.

## Choose the workflow with your team

| Task | Guide | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Work on local history derived from a team World | [Work from a shared World](./work-from-a-shared-world.md) | Your own branch, until you push |
| Run an app against a shared endpoint | [Point an app at a shared World](./point-an-app-at-a-shared-world.md) | The shared World's records; coordinate writers |
| Send local work for the team | [Share a World](./share-a-world.md) | Entries move between Worlds with receipts |
| Read current vendor records | [Read the vendor through a shared World](./read-the-vendor-through-a-shared-world.md) | A refresh records observations from the real service |
| Perform writes at the real vendor | [Deploy from a shared World](./deploy-from-a-shared-world.md) | Vendor state under the real root's policy |

Confirm the exact organization and World before linking a remote. Keep scoped tokens out of source control and browser captures. Push does not mean deploy. Your console's Real services settings and receipts show the root policy; use the [model](../concepts/the-model.md) for these semantics.

Host administrators have a separate [host setup guide](./host-worlds-for-a-team.md) and [self-hosting guide](./self-host-the-platform.md). Those are not prerequisites for a teammate joining an existing platform.