📇 Connection Profiles¶

A connection profile is a TOML entry that captures every field of the Connections panel for one connection. Profiles let you switch between hosts without re-typing credentials and share presets across a team.

Profiles live in a plain .toml file; one file can contain many profiles as top-level tables.

Important

You do not write these TOML files by hand. Fill in the connection fields in the panel, then click the Save icon (floppy disk) at the top-right of the profile row. The add-on creates the .toml file for you on first save and appends or overwrites the current entry on subsequent saves. The file format documented below is shown only so you can inspect or share the output; the intended authoring path is always through the UI.

The Save icon (floppy disk, highlighted in red) at the top-right of the profile row. Click it to write the on-screen connection fields to a .toml file, creating the file the first time and overwriting the currently selected entry after a profile is loaded.¶

The Profile Row¶

At the top of the Backend Communicator panel, four buttons manage the active file:

Button	Effect
Open	Pick a `.toml` file; the Profile dropdown fills with the entries found in that file.
Clear	Forget the loaded file; connection fields stay as they are.
Reload	Re-apply the currently selected entry, discarding any edits you made since load.
Save	Write the current field values back into the file under the currently selected entry (or a new one if none is selected).

Save takes whatever is on screen and writes it to disk. Entries in the file that you are not currently editing are preserved.

The profile row. Open Profile picks a .toml file; once a file is loaded, this row changes to a profile dropdown plus Open / Clear / Reload / Save icon buttons. The save icon on the right writes the current on-screen fields back into the file.¶

Note

The Save button does not preserve comments or formatting in the TOML file. If you keep comments in your profile file, re-save from a backup or edit the file by hand rather than round-tripping through the button.

File Format¶

The sections below describe the on-disk layout for reference. Remember that this file is generated by the Save icon, not authored by hand. Open it in an editor only to inspect, diff, or share entries; round-tripping through the Save button is the supported edit path.

Each profile is a top-level table. The table name is free-form (quote it if it contains spaces or other non-bare characters). Inside the table, one required discriminator and up to eleven connection fields:

TOML key	Notes
`type`	Required. One of `Local`, `SSH`, `SSH Command`, `Docker`, `Docker over SSH`, `Docker over SSH Command`, `Windows Native`.
`host`	SSH host / alias.
`port`	SSH port.
`username`	SSH user.
`key_path`	Private key path. `~` is expanded when used.
`command`	Raw `ssh ...` string for Command modes.
`container`	Docker container name.
`remote_path`	Remote solver directory for SSH.
`docker_path`	Solver directory inside a Docker container.
`local_path`	Local solver directory.
`win_native_path`	Windows solver root.
`docker_port`	Server TCP port (1024-65535).

Unknown keys are silently ignored, so it is safe to sprinkle comments or future additions in the file.

Example¶

# connections.toml -- one entry per environment
[Local]
type = "Local"
local_path = "~/ppf-contact-solver"
docker_port = 9090

[LocalDocker]
type = "Docker"
container = "ppf-dev"
docker_path = "/root/ppf-contact-solver"
docker_port = 9090

[GPU01]
type = "SSH"
host = "gpu01.example.com"
port = 22
username = "alice"
key_path = "~/.ssh/id_ed25519"
remote_path = "/home/alice/ppf-contact-solver"
docker_port = 9090

[GPU01 via command]
type = "SSH Command"
command = "ssh -p 22 -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 alice@gpu01.example.com"
remote_path = "/home/alice/ppf-contact-solver"
docker_port = 9090

[GPU01 Docker]
type = "Docker over SSH"
host = "gpu01.example.com"
port = 22
username = "alice"
key_path = "~/.ssh/id_ed25519"
container = "ppf-dev"
docker_path = "/root/ppf-contact-solver"
docker_port = 9090

[Workstation Windows]
type = "Windows Native"
win_native_path = "C:\\Users\\alice\\ppf-win"
docker_port = 9090

Remember to escape backslashes in Windows paths (\\) or use forward slashes.

Loading a Profile¶

Click Open and pick the .toml file.
The Profile dropdown now lists every top-level table, sorted alphabetically.
Pick an entry; the connection fields fill in from the table.
Edit anything you like, then Connect as usual. Your edits stay in the UI; Reload reverts them to the file’s version, Save writes them back.

Related Profile Types¶

The same TOML machinery drives scene profiles and material profiles elsewhere in the add-on. They live in separate files and are managed from their own panels; only the connection profile is documented here, but the Save/Reload semantics are identical.

Under the hood

Operators

Button	Operator `bl_idname`
Open	`ssh.open_profile`
Clear	`ssh.clear_profile`
Reload	`ssh.reload_profile`
Save	`ssh.save_profile`

Save behavior

Save loads the file on disk, replaces only the currently selected entry with the on-screen values, and writes the whole file back. Other entries are preserved, but the rewrite only handles scalars, lists, and arrays of tables, so comments and original formatting in the input file are lost. This is why the user-facing note above warns about comment loss.

type validation

The type value in each TOML entry must exactly match one of the server-type strings listed in the File format table. Any other value causes apply_profile to return early without setting server_type, leaving the previously selected connection type unchanged; no error is reported and the remaining fields are still applied.