Profiles
Choose a WhatsApp profile for each command and give your agent a specific profile and permissions.
A profile is a name for one linked device of wa on this computer: one WhatsApp account, with its own keys and
its own settings. wa never picks one for you: a command that uses an account names its profile as the first word
(wa personal chats list) or through WA_PROFILE, every time, even with only one account.
Read this page when you want a second account, or want your AI agent to have fewer rights than you. At the end you know how to pick a profile for a command and how to give it its own settings.
What profiles let you do
| You want to | How |
|---|---|
| Use two WhatsApp accounts on one computer | Link once per profile: wa work session start |
| Give your agent fewer rights than you have | A profile with its own permissions |
| Keep an agent on that one profile | WA_PROFILE_LOCK (profiles in linking) |
| See every profile on this computer | wa account list |
Choose a profile
Put the profile name before the command:
wa work config showwa account list shows every profile on this computer and the account each is linked as; wa work session end
unlinks the profile work.
A setting under profiles.work in the config file applies to that profile; values under defaults apply when it
has no value of its own. The rules for profile names, and the order in which wa picks a profile, are in
profiles in linking.
Each profile is a device of its own on the phone's list of linked devices, with its own one connection (one connection per device).
Profiles are not separate operating-system users: an agent with unrestricted file access can still reach other data on that computer.
Settings and access
- Configuration explains saved values, environment variables and options.
- Permissions controls what each profile may do.
- Linking, devices and profiles explains how to link a profile.