Profile resolution

Switchboard picks the profile once, when a client opens an MCP session, and keeps it for that session. It checks, in order:

The first that applies wins.

URL pathCopy Anchor Link

The most reliable choice, since every HTTP client can use a URL. One-click Connect writes this form.

http://127.0.0.1:7690/p/<profile>/mcp

HeaderCopy Anchor Link

Clients that let you set request headers, such as Cursor and VS Code, can use the shared /mcp endpoint with a header:

{
  "url": "http://127.0.0.1:7690/mcp",
  "headers": { "X-Switchboard-Profile": "work" }
}

Client rulesCopy Anchor Link

When neither the path nor the header names a profile, Switchboard reads the client's name from the MCP initialize request (clientInfo.name) and tries each client rule. A rule matches the name with a glob:

"clientRules": [
  { "client": "cursor*", "profile": "work" },
  { "client": "claude-code", "profile": "personal" }
]

* matches any run of characters, and matching ignores case. From the terminal:

switchboard rule add "cursor*" work
switchboard rule ls
switchboard rule rm "cursor*"

This lets one plain http://127.0.0.1:7690/mcp entry serve different profiles to different clients. Rules are checked in order and the first match wins.

Default profileCopy Anchor Link

If nothing else applies, the session uses defaultProfile. Without a default profile, the connection is refused with HTTP 400 and a JSON-RPC error explaining the four ways to choose a profile. Set or clear it with:

switchboard default work
switchboard default none

Unknown profilesCopy Anchor Link

A profile name in the path or the header that does not exist is an error: HTTP 400 with JSON-RPC error -32602, whose message lists the profiles that do exist, so the fix is easy to spot in the client's logs. Rules and the default profile cannot point at a missing profile: the configuration is rejected, and deleting a profile also removes its rules and clears it as the default.

Each session is separateCopy Anchor Link

Every session gets its own view of its profile, and another client's activity never changes what it sees. When you edit a profile, or a server's tools change, only the sessions whose tool list actually changed are sent notifications/tools/list_changed. Sessions with no requests for six hours are closed.