Before setting up a property in DOOR OS, it helps to understand the three core concepts that control how access works: Doors, Units, and Keys. They build on each other — Doors are the individual access points, Keys group Doors together, and Units organize residents by apartment.
Concepts at a glance
| Concept | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Door | A digital representation of one physical access point (lock) | "Front Entrance", "Gym", "Unit 202" |
| Unit | A digital representation of a residential apartment or space | "Unit 202", "Apt 5B" |
| Key | A bundle of one or more Doors, assigned to users to grant access | "Resident Key", "Staff Key", "Amenities" |
Doors
A Door is the digital counterpart of a Latch device. Creating a Door in DOOR OS is a required step before installing or activating Latch hardware — the device gets linked to the Door during activation.
Each Door has a type that controls privacy rules for access logs:
| Door type | Use for | Privacy |
|---|---|---|
| Building Entrance | Entryways, vestibules, exterior-to-interior passages | Logs visible to managers |
| Residence | Apartment front doors | Access logs for residents marked "Resident" stay private |
| Service | Maintenance rooms, storage, restricted areas | Logs visible to managers |
| Communal | Gyms, lounges, shared spaces | Logs visible to managers |
Once a device is activated to a Door, the door type cannot be changed. Choose carefully before activating.
Units
A Unit is a digital representation of an apartment or residential space. Units are used for two things:
- Intercom directory: users linked to a unit appear in the building's intercom directory under their unit number.
- Smart home: units are required for linking smart home devices to specific apartments.
Associating a unit with a door does not grant access to that door. Access is managed separately through Keys assigned to users.
Keys
A Key is a collection of one or more Doors. When you assign a Key to a user, that user gains access to every Door in the Key. Any settings applied to a Key — such as schedules or doorcode configuration — apply to all users assigned that Key.
Keys let you manage access efficiently: instead of assigning individual Doors one by one to every resident, you create a Key (for example, "Resident Key" with all common doors) and assign it once. When you add or remove a Door from a Key, the change applies immediately to everyone who holds that Key.
How they relate
A typical setup looks like this:
Property
└── Doors (physical access points)
└── Keys (groups of doors)
└── Users (residents, staff)
└── Units (apartments)
└── Users (linked for intercom/smart home)
A resident's unit assignment controls their intercom listing; their Key assignments control which doors they can open. These are independent — a resident can have access to doors without being assigned a unit, and vice versa.
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