# Profiles (/en/docs/wa/profiles)

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 [#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](/llms.mdx/docs/wa/permissions/content.md) |
| Keep an agent on that one profile | `WA_PROFILE_LOCK` ([profiles in linking](/llms.mdx/docs/wa/sessions/content.md#profiles)) |
| See every profile on this computer | `wa account list`[↗](/llms.mdx/docs/wa/commands-setup/content.md#wa-account-list "Command reference: wa account list") |

## Choose a profile [#choose-a-profile]

Put the profile name before the command:

```sh
wa work config show
```

`wa account list`[↗](/llms.mdx/docs/wa/commands-setup/content.md#wa-account-list "Command reference: wa 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](/llms.mdx/docs/wa/sessions/content.md#profiles).

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](/llms.mdx/docs/wa/sessions/content.md#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 [#settings-and-access]

* [Configuration](/llms.mdx/docs/wa/configuration/content.md) explains saved values, environment variables and options.
* [Permissions](/llms.mdx/docs/wa/permissions/content.md) controls what each profile may do.
* [Linking, devices and profiles](/llms.mdx/docs/wa/sessions/content.md) explains how to link a profile.