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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.skyvexsoftware.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

This guide is for new VA administrators who have just been granted access to the Skyvex platform. By the end you’ll have a live airline, branded for your VA, with the Dashboard and Flight Tracking plugins installed and ready for pilots. If you don’t have access yet, request it at skyvexsoftware.com. VA access is currently invite-only while we’re in early access.

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What you’ll need

Have these ready before you start — you can fill them in later, but it’s quicker to do it once:
  • Airline name and ICAO code (2–4 letters, e.g. PVA)
  • Logo files — one for light backgrounds, one for dark backgrounds (PNG or SVG)
  • Square icon — used in notifications and app tiles
  • Brand colours — primary + text colour for both light and dark modes (hex codes)
  • Crew system details (optional but recommended) — your API base URL and whether you’ll use credentials or OAuth

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Step 1 — Create your airline

1

Sign in to Skyvex

Open skyvexsoftware.com/login and sign in with the account that was granted VA admin access.
2

Open the create form

From your dashboard, click Create Airline. You’ll see a simple form asking for basic information.
3

Fill in the basics

FieldWhat to enter
Airline NameThe full display name, e.g. Pacific Virtual Airways
ICAO CodeA 2–4 letter code, e.g. PVA. Used as the airline identifier across Skyvex and Stratos
Website (optional)Your VA’s public URL, shown to pilots in the airline directory
Click Create Airline to continue. You’ll land on the airline overview page.
Everything in this guide is editable after creation. You don’t need to get branding or crew system integration right on the first pass — get the airline created, then come back and refine.

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Step 2 — Configure branding

Pilots see your branding the moment they connect to your airline — the logo replaces the Stratos logo in the sidebar, your colours apply to highlights and accents, and your icon shows up in OS notifications. From your airline page, click Edit to open the configuration form, then scroll to the Branding section.
1

Upload your icon

A square image, used for app displays and notifications. PNG with transparency works well. Keep it simple — at small sizes, detail disappears.
2

Upload your logos

You upload two logos:
  • Light mode logo — shown when the pilot is using the light theme. Use a dark logo so it’s readable on a white background.
  • Dark mode logo — shown in dark theme. Use a light/white logo for the same reason.
If you only have one logo, upload it as both — it just won’t adapt to the user’s theme.
3

Pick your colours

Set four hex values:
  • Light Primary — your accent colour on a white background (buttons, highlights)
  • Light Text — the muted text colour for secondary labels in light mode
  • Dark Primary — your accent colour on a dark background
  • Dark Text — the muted text colour for secondary labels in dark mode
The colour picker accepts any valid hex code. The same accent colour usually works for both light and dark; the text colours typically differ.
4

Save

Click Save Changes at the bottom of the form. Branding takes effect immediately — pilots who are already signed in will see the update the next time their app syncs.

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Step 3 — Connect your crew system

Stratos is an ACARS client — it sends pilots’ flight data back to your crew system (phpVMS, vaCentral, in-house, etc.) so PIREPs land where your roster, schedules, and league tables live. This step is optional for testing, but required before pilots can submit real flights.
1

Set the API Base URL

In Edit Airline → Crew System Integration, enter your crew system’s API base URL. For example:
https://crew.yourairline.com/api/
Trailing slash is required. This is the prefix Stratos uses for every VA API call.
2

Choose your authentication method

Stratos supports two methods:
  • Credentials — pilots enter their crew system username and password directly in Stratos. Stratos forwards them to your VA API for verification. Simpler to set up; less secure (pilots type their password into a desktop app).
  • OAuth 2.0 (PKCE) — pilots are redirected to your crew system’s login page, sign in there, and Stratos receives an access token. Strongly recommended.
For OAuth, you’ll need to register Stratos as a public OAuth client on your crew system and fill in the Client ID, authorise URL, token URL, and refresh URL. The full walkthrough is in OAuth Authentication Setup — including the Laravel Passport example and the security controls your crew system must enforce.
3

Save and verify (OAuth only)

After saving an OAuth config, the airline edit page shows a Verification Status card. Click Test Connection — Skyvex runs through the full sign-in and refresh flow once and marks the config Verified with the current date if everything works. Any OAuth field change clears the verified status, so you can re-test after updates.

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Step 4 — Make your airline discoverable

By default, your airline is hidden from the public Stratos directory while you set it up. You have two ways to let pilots in:
1

Option A — Publish to the directory

In Edit Airline → Visibility, tick Show in Stratos. Your airline now appears in the public airline list inside the Stratos app — any pilot can find it and sign in.Use this once you’re confident the setup is correct and you’re ready for general onboarding.
2

Option B — Share an invite code

On your airline overview page, you’ll see a Share code — a short, copyable code unique to your airline. Pilots can paste it into the airline picker in Stratos to find your airline directly, without it being publicly listed.Use this for staged rollouts, private VAs, or pre-launch testing with a few pilots.
You can use both at the same time — publish to the directory and share the code for direct links.

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Step 5 — Install the starter plugins

Stratos ships with a thin shell — the actual pilot-facing features (dashboards, flight tracking, landing analysis, etc.) come from plugins your airline installs. The two we recommend installing first are Dashboard and Flight Tracking.
1

Open the plugins page

From your airline overview, click the Plugins button. You’ll see two sections:
  • Installed plugins — what your pilots currently have, in the order they appear in their sidebar
  • Available plugins — everything in the Skyvex catalog that your airline can install
2

Install Dashboard

Find Dashboard in the available list and click Add. A dialog asks how you’d like to scope it:
  • Install for everyone — every pilot in the airline gets it. This is what you want for Dashboard.
  • Select pilots… — only the pilots you pick. Useful for instructor-only or beta-testing tools, not for Dashboard.
Click Install for everyone. Dashboard moves to the installed list.Dashboard gives pilots a welcome page with a banner, a “From the Team” announcement section, their pilot profile, and quick-access tiles you configure.
3

Install Flight Tracking

Repeat the same flow for Flight Tracking — click Add, then Install for everyone.Flight Tracking is the core of the ACARS client: real-time position reporting, multi-simulator support, flight phase detection, booking management, a live map, and the flight history view. Without it, pilots can’t track or submit flights.
4

Set the order

Plugins appear in the pilot’s sidebar in the order shown on this page. Drag the grip handle on the left of each plugin to reorder. A typical order is:
  1. Dashboard (top of sidebar — first thing pilots see on launch)
  2. Flight Tracking (the main workflow)
  3. Any custom or third-party plugins below
Changes save automatically — you’ll see a Saving… / Saved indicator in the header.
You can install more plugins (Landing Analyser, Pilot Centre, your own custom plugins) the same way. The two starters above are the minimum needed for a usable airline.

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Step 6 — Configure plugin settings

Each plugin can expose airline-level settings — defaults and behaviours that apply to all your pilots. On the airline plugins page, plugins with airline-scoped settings show a small cog icon next to them. Click it to open that plugin’s settings page.

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Dashboard

Dashboard exposes two airline-scoped settings:
SettingWhat it does
Welcome MessageThe text shown in the “From the Team” panel on every pilot’s dashboard. Use it for ops announcements, current event info, or just a friendly greeting. Plain text, multi-line.
Quick Access LinksA JSON array of up to 10 tiles linking to external URLs — dispatch tools, league tables, training pages, etc. Each item has an icon, title, subtitle, and link.
The Quick Access Links field accepts items in this shape: 
[
  {
    "icon": "Plane",
    "title": "Dispatch a flight",
    "subtitle": "SimBrief · OFP · Fuel",
    "link": "https://www.simbrief.com/system/dispatch.php"
  },
  {
    "icon": "Map",
    "title": "Route network",
    "subtitle": "All available routes",
    "link": "https://yourairline.com/routes"
  }
]
Supported icons: Award, BookOpen, Calendar, FileText, Globe, HelpCircle, History, Home, Map, MessageSquare, Plane, Settings, Star, Target, Users, Wrench. Unknown names fall back to Plane.

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Flight Tracking

Flight Tracking has a larger set of airline-scoped settings — these change how every pilot’s tracking behaves:
SettingWhat it does
Can Delete BookingsIf on, pilots can cancel their own booked flights from the booking list. Off by default.
Tracking IntervalHow often Stratos sends a position report. 15 / 30 / 60 seconds. Lower = smoother live map, more API traffic.
Time CaptureHow flight time is measured for PIREPs. Block Time (pushback → arrived at gate) or Air Time (takeoff → landing).
Starting Fuel CaptureWhen the flight’s starting fuel is locked in for fuel-burn calculations. Pushback or Takeoff.
Time Compression as Real TimeIf on, a 4× sim rate multiplies accumulated flight time by 4. Off by default — most VAs reward only real wall-clock time.
Position Report FieldsOptional extra fields appended to position reports beyond the always-sent core (lat/lon/alt/heading/ground speed).
Event RulesStructured rules controlling which flight events get logged into the PIREP (engine on/off, flap changes, stalls, phase transitions, etc.). Edit on the dedicated event rules page.
The defaults are sensible — most airlines won’t need to change anything beyond Time Capture and the Event Rules. Pilot-scoped settings (auto-start, auto-submit) are configured by each pilot in the Stratos app itself.

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Step 7 — Test end-to-end

Before you announce the airline to your pilots, do one full dry run yourself:
1

Install Stratos

Download from skyvexsoftware.com/download and install on your own machine.
2

Connect to your airline

On first launch, find your airline in the directory (or paste your share code). Sign in with your crew system credentials (or via OAuth if you configured it).Verify:
  • Your logo replaces the Stratos logo in the sidebar
  • Your accent colours show up on highlights and active states
  • Dashboard and Flight Tracking appear in the sidebar in the order you set
3

Fly a short test flight

Spin up your simulator, book a short flight via Flight Tracking, click Start Tracking, and fly a quick circuit. Submit the PIREP when you arrive.Check that the flight lands in your crew system with the right pilot, route, times, and any custom fields you configured.
4

Sweep the event log

Open the flight history in Flight Tracking and inspect the logged events for that flight. If something’s missing (or noisy), tweak Event Rules on the airline plugin settings page and try again.
If anything in this flow surprises you — branding doesn’t apply, PIREPs don’t land, OAuth refresh forces a re-sign-in — fix it before you invite pilots. The first flight a pilot tries is the one that decides whether they’ll trust the system.

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What pilots see

Once your airline is live, the pilot experience is:
  1. Pilot downloads Stratos from skyvexsoftware.com/download.
  2. On first launch, they find your airline (directory or share code) and click it.
  3. They authenticate via the method you configured.
  4. Stratos auto-installs the plugins you’ve published — Dashboard, Flight Tracking, plus anything else you’ve added.
  5. Their first time on the Dashboard, they see your welcome message and quick-access tiles.
  6. They book a flight, fly it, and submit — flight data flows to your crew system in real time.
The pilot Getting Started guide covers their side of this in detail. It’s worth skimming so you know what your pilots are reading.

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Next steps

  • OAuth setup — if you chose OAuth, the full setup guide is at OAuth Authentication Setup, including PKCE setup, refresh token rotation, and the security controls your crew system must enforce.
  • Custom plugins — build airline-specific dashboards, livery browsers, or dispatch tools using the Plugin SDK.
  • Landing rates — if you’d like landing-rate scoring with airline-configurable thresholds, install the Landing Analyser plugin from the Plugins page. Details in Landing Rate Analysis.
  • Support — your airline page has a Support button that opens a private ticket queue between you and Skyvex Software. Use it for integration questions, bug reports, or feature requests.