# 3.4. Database Per User

## 3.4.1. Database Per User Options

[couch_peruser]
  enable

  If set to `true`, couch_peruser ensures that a private per-user database exists for each document in `_users`. These databases are writable only by the corresponding user. Database names are in the following form: `userdb-{UTF-8 hex encoded username}`.

      [couch_peruser]
      enable = false

  Note

  The `_users` database must exist before couch_peruser can be enabled.

  Tip

  Under NodeJS, user names can be converted to and from database names thusly:

      function dbNameToUsername(prefixedHexName) {
        return Buffer.from(prefixedHexName.replace('userdb-', ''), 'hex').toString('utf8');
      }

      function usernameToDbName(name) {
        return 'userdb-' + Buffer.from(name).toString('hex');
      }

  delete_dbs

  If set to `true` and a user is deleted, the respective database gets deleted as well.

      [couch_peruser]
      delete_dbs = false

  Note: When using JWT authorization, the provided token must include a custom `_couchdb.roles=['_admin']` claim to for the peruser database to be properly created and accessible for the user provided in the `sub=` claim.

  q

  If set, specify the sharding value for per-user databases. If unset, the cluster default value will be used.

      [couch_peruser]
      q = 1