Ory Kratos does not provide a built-in feature to "pause" registrations directly. However, you can achieve this by implementing certain logic in your application. One way to do this is by using hooks in the registration flow. Hooks allow you to run custom logic before and after a Registration Flow. For example, you could restrict registration to IPs coming from your internal network or implement other logic to control the registration process. Here is the relevant documentation on [Hooks](https://www.ory.sh/docs/kratos/self-service/flows/user-registration#hooks) and how to [configure hooks](https://www.ory.sh/docs/kratos/hooks/configure-hooks). Another approach could be to make registration available only to specific individuals by sending them invitations. This way, you can control who can register to your application. Here are the steps to invite users to an Ory-powered application: 1. You create a basic user account for the user you want to invite. You use their email address as the account identifier. 2. You trigger account recovery for the user account you created. 3. You get the recovery link from the API response and send it to the user's email address. 4. The user performs account recovery which forces them to define new credentials. 5. The user gets a fully functional account with the credentials they defined. Automating this process requires writing custom code that relies on the specifics of your implementation. Here is the relevant documentation on [inviting users](https://www.ory.sh/docs/kratos/manage-identities/invite-users). Remember, both of these methods require custom implementation and are not built-in features of Ory Kratos.