Visitors

A visitor is the persistent identity of a browser/device, independent of whether you've called identify(). It survives reloads, tab closures, and "log out" flows.

Visitor ID

A random ID minted the first time the SDK runs, stored in localStorage under a namespaced key:

localStorage["galacha:visitor_id"] = "v_01HK8Z2M7F..."

On every subsequent page load, the SDK reads it back, so the same browser always reports the same visitor ID.

Read it at runtime:

const { visitorId } = useGalacha();
// => "v_01HK8Z2M7F3Y4Q9R3B7KJX5PM2"

Anonymous by default

You do not need to call identify() for a session to be recorded. The SDK captures every visitor, even if they never log in. Anonymous sessions appear in the dashboard with no user label.

<GalachaProvider projectKey="..." />
// Visitor recording starts immediately. No identify needed.

When the user eventually logs in, call identify() (or use useIdentify()) and the current session gets tagged with that identity. Past anonymous sessions under the same visitor ID stay linked.

When a visitor ID changes

Event	New visitor ID?
Page reload	No
Close + reopen tab	No
Close + reopen browser	No
Private/incognito window	Yes (separate localStorage)
Different device	Yes
User clears browser storage	Yes
You call `stop()` then reload	No (visitor ID persists)
Logout	No (visitor ID is not user identity)

Visitor vs User

Two different concepts:

	Visitor	User
Scope	Browser/device	Your auth system
Set by	SDK automatically	You, via `identify()`
Changes when	Storage clears	You call `identify()` with a different ID
Persistent?	Yes (localStorage)	Yes (linked to visitor)

A single visitor can be associated with multiple users over time (shared computer). The dashboard lets you filter by either.

Multi-domain / cross-subdomain

localStorage is per-origin. If your app spans multiple origins (app.example.com and billing.example.com), you'll get different visitor IDs for each. There's no cross-origin linking in the public SDK yet.