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Private Topics

Secure your notifications with private topics - full access control for production systems and sensitive data.

Subscription Required

Private topics are available on ESSENTIALS plan and higher ($9.99/month). View Pricing →

What Are Private Topics?​

Private topics provide true privacy and access control for your notifications. Unlike public topics where anyone can publish, private topics require authentication for both publishing and subscribing.

Key Features:

  • 🔒 Authentication required - Only authorized users can publish or subscribe
  • 🎟️ Access tokens - Fine-grained control over who can access your topic
  • 👥 Team collaboration - Share private topics with team members (TEAM plan)
  • 🔐 Token permissions - Separate read/write access levels
  • ⏰ Token expiry - Set expiration dates for temporary access
  • 🚫 Revocation - Instantly revoke access by deleting tokens

Public vs Private Topics​

FeaturePublic TopicsPrivate Topics
Who can publishAnyone who knows the name ⚠️Only owner + token holders 🔒
Who can subscribeAnyoneOwner, token holders, or discoverable subscribers (read-only) 🔒
Access controlNone (IP rate limiting only)Full control via tokens ✅
DiscoverableYes (optional)Optional - enables read-only public access
Best forOpen communities, testingProduction, sensitive data
Plan requirementFREEESSENTIALS+ ($9.99/mo)

Creating Private Topics​

Via Web Dashboard​

  1. Navigate to Dashboard

  2. Choose Privacy Level

    • Select "Private" option
    • Enter topic name and description

  3. Create Topic

    • Click "Create Topic"
Plan Limits
  • FREE: 1 private topic
  • ESSENTIALS: 10 private topics
  • TEAM: 25 private topics

Discoverable Private Topics​

Private topics can optionally be made discoverable in the public catalog, allowing anyone to find and subscribe with read-only access.

How It Works​

When you enable discoverability for a private topic:

  • 🔍 Visible in Browse - The topic appears in the public "Discover Topics" catalog
  • 👀 Read-Only Access - Subscribers can receive notifications but cannot publish
  • 🔒 Write Protection - Only the owner and token holders can publish messages
  • 🏷️ Read-Only Badge - Subscribers see a "Read-Only" indicator on the topic

Use Cases​

Announcements & Status Updates:

  • Share company announcements with customers (they can subscribe, you control publishing)
  • Public status page for your service (subscribers get updates, but can't post)
  • Product release notifications to interested users

Controlled Information Sharing:

  • Internal team topics visible to external stakeholders (read-only)
  • Project updates for clients without giving them write access
  • News feeds where only authorized staff can publish

Enabling Discoverability​

  1. Create or edit a private topic
  2. Check "Discoverable in public catalog"
  3. Add a description (required for discoverable topics)
  4. Save the topic
Description Required

Discoverable private topics must have a description so users browsing the catalog understand what the topic is about.

Subscriber Experience​

When someone subscribes to a discoverable private topic:

  • They can view and receive all messages (real-time SSE, push notifications)
  • They see a "Read-Only" badge on the topic card
  • Publishing attempts will be rejected with "Permission denied"
  • They can unsubscribe at any time

Disabling Discoverability​

If you disable discoverability on a private topic:

  • The topic is removed from the public catalog
  • Existing subscribers keep read-only access (they already subscribed)
  • New users cannot discover or subscribe to the topic
  • To remove existing subscribers, you need to make them unsubscribe or recreate the topic

Access Control with Tokens​

Private topics use access tokens for authentication. Each token can have different permissions:

Token Types​

READ - Can subscribe and read messages only

curl -N https://app.notifer.io/private-topic/sse?token=tk_read_abc123

WRITE - Can publish messages only

curl -d "Deploy complete" \
  -H "X-Topic-Token: tk_write_xyz789" \
  https://app.notifer.io/private-topic

READ_WRITE - Can both publish and subscribe

curl -d "Message" \
  -H "X-Topic-Token: tk_full_def456" \
  https://app.notifer.io/private-topic

Creating Access Tokens​

  1. Navigate to Topic Settings

    • Open topic menu (three dots)
    • Click "Manage access tokens"

  2. Create New Token

    • Click "Generate Token"
    • Enter token name (e.g., "CI/CD Pipeline")
    • Select access level (READ, WRITE, or READ_WRITE)
    • Optional: Set expiration date

  3. Save Token

    • ⚠️ Copy the token immediately - it's shown only once!
    • Store securely (password manager, secrets vault)
Token Security

Access tokens are shown only once during creation. If you lose a token, you must delete it and create a new one.

Publishing to Private Topics​

Use a topic access token (recommended) to publish to private topics:

curl -d "Production deployment started" \
  -H "X-Topic-Token: tk_your_token_here" \
  -H "X-Priority: 2" \
  https://app.notifer.io/prod-alerts
More authentication options

You can also authenticate with JWT tokens or API keys. For all authentication methods and code examples, see Authentication.

Subscribing to Private Topics​

Web Dashboard​

  1. Navigate to topic page
  2. Click "Subscribe"
  3. You're automatically subscribed (owner has full access)

Mobile App​

  1. Open mobile app
  2. Search for your private topic
  3. Subscribe (owner has automatic access)

SSE with Token​

const token = 'tk_your_read_token';
const eventSource = new EventSource(
  `https://app.notifer.io/private-topic/sse?token=${token}`
);

eventSource.onmessage = (event) => {
  const message = JSON.parse(event.data);
  console.log(message);
};

Team Private Topics​

On TEAM plan and higher, you can create private topics owned by a team:

Benefits:

  • All team members can publish and subscribe
  • Rate limits based on team owner's subscription
  • Shared management and access control
  • Survives when team members leave

Creating Team Private Topics:

  1. Create topic and select "Private"
  2. Under "Team (Optional)", select your team
  3. All team members with appropriate roles can access

See Team Collaboration Guide for details.

Use Cases​

Production Monitoring​

# CI/CD pipeline
curl -d "Build #${BUILD_NUMBER} deployed to production" \
  -H "X-Topic-Token: ${PROD_DEPLOY_TOKEN}" \
  -H "X-Priority: 2" \
  https://app.notifer.io/prod-deployments

Secure Customer Alerts​

# Order notifications (internal only)
curl -d "New order #12345 - $599.99" \
  -H "X-Topic-Token: ${ORDER_TOKEN}" \
  https://app.notifer.io/customer-orders

Sensitive System Alerts​

# Database backup status
curl -d "Backup completed: 2.3GB, 00:23:45" \
  -H "X-Topic-Token: ${BACKUP_TOKEN}" \
  -H "X-Tags: backup,success" \
  https://app.notifer.io/db-backups

Best Practices​

Token Management​

✅ DO:

  • Use descriptive token names ("Jenkins CI", "Monitoring Script")
  • Set expiration dates for temporary access
  • Use READ-only tokens when possible
  • Store tokens in secure vaults (AWS Secrets Manager, 1Password)
  • Rotate tokens periodically (every 90 days)
  • Delete unused tokens immediately

❌ DON'T:

  • Share tokens in code repositories
  • Use same token across multiple systems
  • Store tokens in plain text files
  • Use overly permissive tokens (READ_WRITE when READ is enough)

Topic Naming​

For private topics, you can use simple, descriptive names since they're not guessable:

✅ prod-alerts
✅ customer-orders
✅ db-backups
✅ team-notifications

No need for complex random strings like public topics!

Troubleshooting​

"Private topic. Provide X-Topic-Token header"​

Problem: Trying to publish/subscribe without authentication

Solution:

# Add token to request
curl -d "Message" \
  -H "X-Topic-Token: tk_your_token_here" \
  https://app.notifer.io/private-topic

"Invalid or expired topic access token"​

Problem: Token is invalid, expired, or deleted

Solution:

  1. Verify token is correct (copy/paste error?)
  2. Check if token has expired
  3. Ensure token hasn't been deleted
  4. Create new token if needed

"Only the topic owner can create access tokens"​

Problem: You're not the topic owner

Solution:

  • Only topic owners can manage access tokens
  • Ask the topic owner to share a token with you
  • For team topics, you need owner or admin role

Migration from Public to Private​

Cannot Convert Directly

You cannot convert a public topic to private (or vice versa). You must create a new private topic.

Migration steps:

  1. Create new private topic with different name
  2. Update integrations to use new topic + tokens
  3. Test publishing and subscribing
  4. Delete old public topic when ready
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