Your account

Director 1 runs over the network, on usage we pay for. The account is how that usage is attributed to you, and it is the reason the app is behind a sign-in rather than open.

When your plan cannot cover a turn, the composer says so directly instead of failing silently: "Sign in to send", or "Your subscription has lapsed. Renew your plan to keep building with Director 1."

Publishing to Steam is also tied to your account. Everything else — your projects, the builder, playing what you have made — is local.

Sign-in happens in your browser rather than in the app window. Stage Engine opens a secure tab, you sign in there, and the app receives the session. The credential is stored in your operating system’s own keychain, not in a file the app invented.

Sessions can expire. When one does the app says "Session expired — sign in again. Local projects are untouched," which is exactly true: nothing on disk depends on being signed in.

On a paid plan you can connect your own ChatGPT account and have Director 1 run on that instead of on the usage included with your plan. The setting lives in the app’s own account screen, separately from plan and billing, which stay on the website.

Connecting also reveals a model picker in the composer, listing what your connected account can actually run. On the usage included with your plan there is no picker, because which model Director 1 uses is our decision and our cost.

If your connected account stops working, Director 1 falls back to the usage included with your plan and tells you it has. You are never left unable to build because of a connection you set up.