Managing preferences

Infrahub stores per-user preferences that control aspects of the web interface and how it displays data. Preferences follow your account to any session or device, and — with the manage_global_preferences permission — an administrator can set organisation-wide defaults for users who haven't set their own.

Today that covers date format and timezone, controlling how Infrahub renders dates and times throughout the interface. Both use the same per-user and organisation-wide model, designed so Infrahub can add more personal settings later without changing how preferences resolve.

Set your preferences

Via the web interface

1. Open Account settings from the user menu in the left sidebar.
2. On the Profile tab, find the Preferences card.
3. Select a Date format and a Timezone.
4. Click Save.

A field you leave on Automatic (inherited) takes the organisation default, or your browser default when no organisation default is set. The information icon next to each field shows where the current value comes from.

To clear an override and go back to the inherited value, re-select the value that is currently applied.

Via the GraphQL interface

Write your own preferences with InfrahubSetPreferences using scope: USER. The mutation only ever writes your own row — there is no account argument.

mutation {
  InfrahubSetPreferences(scope: USER, date_format: EU_DATETIME, timezone: "Europe/Paris") {
    ok
    date_format
    timezone
  }
}

An omitted argument leaves that field unchanged. An explicit null clears the field, so it falls back to the organisation default or your browser default.

Read your resolved values — the ones the interface renders with — with InfrahubEffectivePreferences. Each field returns its value and the source it resolved from (USER, GLOBAL, or DEFAULT).

query {
  InfrahubEffectivePreferences {
    date_format {
      value
      source
    }
    timezone {
      value
      source
    }
  }
}

Set organisation defaults

Organisation defaults apply to every user who has not set their own value. Setting them requires the manage_global_preferences permission (super administrators have it implicitly). See the permissions reference for the full list of permissions.

Via the web interface

1. Open Global preferences from the user menu in the left sidebar. The menu item is visible only to users with the manage_global_preferences permission.
2. Select a Date format and a Timezone.
3. Click Save.

A field left on Automatic (browser default) sets no organisation default for that field, so users without their own value fall back to their browser default.

Via the GraphQL interface

Write organisation defaults with InfrahubSetPreferences using scope: GLOBAL. The mutation enforces the manage_global_preferences permission before it writes.

mutation {
  InfrahubSetPreferences(scope: GLOBAL, date_format: ISO_DATETIME, timezone: "UTC") {
    ok
    date_format
    timezone
  }
}

Read the raw organisation defaults with InfrahubGlobalPreferences. This query also requires the manage_global_preferences permission.

query {
  InfrahubGlobalPreferences {
    date_format
    timezone
  }
}

Preference precedence

Infrahub resolves each preference field on its own, in this order:

1. Your value — the value you set for yourself.
2. The organisation default — the value an administrator set for everyone.
3. The browser default — your browser's locale for date formatting, and your browser's timezone.

Resolution is per field, so you can take the date format from your own value and the timezone from the organisation default at the same time. A field you never set falls through to the next layer; it is not stored until you set it.

Available preferences

Date format

The date format is a semantic key, not a rendering pattern. Each preset renders both a date and a time. The web interface renders the following presets:

Key	Format	Example
ISO_DATETIME (default)	yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm	2026-07-01 14:30
ISO_DATETIME_SECONDS	yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss	2026-07-01 14:30:00
ISO_8601	yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssXXX	2026-07-01T14:30:00+02:00
EU_DATETIME	dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm	01/07/2026 14:30
US_12H	MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm a	07/01/2026 02:30 PM

When you select a format, the interface shows a live example next to the field.

Timezone

The timezone is an IANA name, such as Europe/Paris or UTC. The picker lists the timezones your browser supports. A field left unset uses your browser's own timezone.

Best practices

• Set an organisation default for the timezone when your teams work in one region. Everyone then reads timestamps in the same zone until they choose their own.
• Leave the date format on the default (ISO_DATETIME) unless your organisation has a house style. The ISO presets sort and compare the same way in every locale.
• Preferences affect display only. They change how the web interface renders timestamps; they never change the stored data. A timezone preference renders each timestamp in that zone without altering the underlying value.