diff --git a/pciSeq/src/diagnostics/launch_diagnostics.py b/pciSeq/src/diagnostics/launch_diagnostics.py
index 1fe33d6d..54187305 100644
--- a/pciSeq/src/diagnostics/launch_diagnostics.py
+++ b/pciSeq/src/diagnostics/launch_diagnostics.py
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 import os
+from pathlib import Path
+import tomlkit
 import subprocess
 import pciSeq.src.diagnostics.utils as utils
 import logging
@@ -11,9 +13,35 @@ def launch_dashboard():
     filename = os.path.join(dirname, 'diagnostics.py')
     code_1, code_2 = utils.validate_redis()
     if code_1 == 0 and code_2 == 0:
+        make_credentials()
         p = subprocess.Popen(["streamlit", "run", filename, " --server.headless true"])
         # TODO: you need to kill the process on exit
-        # logger.info('Starting process with pid: %d to run the diagnostics' % p.pid)
+        # launch_diagnostics_logger.info('Starting process with pid: %d to run the diagnostics' % p.pid)
     else:
         launch_diagnostics_logger.info("Skipping diagnostics, cannot run them. Either redis not installed or not running.")
 
+
+def make_credentials():
+    """
+    creates a credentials.toml file in the .streamlit folder under the user's home dir and
+    in the [general] section it creates an email key with value an empty string.
+    If an email key/value pair exists already, the file remains intact
+    The only purpose of this is to skip the annoying streamlit welcome message so that
+    the diagnostics will be launched without any user interaction. (otherwise the welcome msf
+    might pause the program flow)
+    """
+    credentials = os.path.join(Path.home(), '.streamlit', 'credentials.toml')
+    mode = 'rt' if os.path.exists(credentials) else 'w+'
+    with open(credentials, mode) as fp:
+        doc = tomlkit.load(fp)
+        append_email(doc, credentials)
+
+
+def append_email(doc, fname):
+    if doc.get('general') is None:
+        general = tomlkit.table()
+        doc.add("general", general)
+    if doc.get('general').get('email') is None:
+        doc.get('general').add("email", "")
+    with open(fname, 'w') as outfile:
+        tomlkit.dump(doc, outfile)