Every device needs a record in your account before the platform accepts its data. You can create that record by hand, let a product create it when the device first connects, or create the devices yourself and let other accounts claim them. This page explains when each way fits.

Manual, Auto Provision and claims

Manual

You create each device in Devices, with the API or with the CLI, and flash its device ID and credentials into the firmware. It is the simplest way and the right one for a few devices, prototypes and tests. Each guide in Connect a device starts this way.

Auto Provision

A product can create devices by itself. In its Auto Provision settings you set a device ID pattern, such as sensor_[0-9A-F]{12}. When a device that does not exist yet tries to connect with an ID that matches the pattern, the platform creates it in that product, with its properties, Data Buckets and dashboards, and accepts it from then on:

Device type	The device is created when
IOTMP or MQTT	It connects for the first time. The credentials it presents become its device credentials.
HTTP	It sends its first request to a device resource of the product. See HTTP.
Subdevice	A product flow receives its first MQTT message.

Use it for fleets: flash the same firmware on every unit, each with its own ID (for example, derived from its MAC address) and its own credentials, and the devices appear as they are switched on. The LoRaWAN plugins rely on it too. For a complete walkthrough, see Provision a device fleet.

Claims

A claim lets another account take some of your devices, and other resources such as dashboards, into a project you share with it. You create the claim in Toolbox > Claims and give its URL or code to the other party, for example printed on the box of the device. When they claim it, the devices join the project and they can use them with the permissions of that project. You can limit how many times a claim works.

Use it when you make devices for others: you provision them first, by hand or with Auto Provision, and each customer claims their own.

Choose a way

Way	Best for	Who creates the device	Needs
Manual	A few devices, prototypes	You	Nothing else
Auto Provision	Fleets of the same product	The platform, on first connection	A product with a device ID pattern
Claims	Devices you hand over to other accounts	You, before shipping	Devices, a project and a claim

Learn more

Connect a deviceChoose how to connect your hardware to Thinger.io - device libraries over IOTMP, MQTT, HTTP or a LoRaWAN or Sigfox network.SubdevicesRepresent the sensors and machines behind an MQTT gateway as their own devices, with their own connection state, data and dashboards.LoRaWANBring LoRaWAN sensors into Thinger.io through The Things Stack, ChirpStack or LORIOT, with devices created automatically and downlinks.