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Feature request: Add dedicated command to switch between existing profiles (avoid accidental creation) #182
Description
Hi! I’ve been using CloudMonkey with multiple profiles and noticed a usability issue with the current set profile command.
Right now, set profile serves both to create a new profile and to switch to an existing profile:
- When creating a profile, you run:
set profile <new_profile_name>
set url <api_url>
set apikey <api_key>
set secretkey <secret_key>
[optional: set username / set domain]
- When switching between profiles, you also run:
set profile <existing_profile_name>
The problem is that if you mistype the profile name when trying to switch, CloudMonkey silently creates a new empty profile instead of switching, which can be confusing and lead to misconfiguration.
Proposal:
Add a dedicated command for switching between existing profiles — one that does not create new profiles if the name doesn’t match.
For example:
switch profile <profile_name>
or
use profile <profile_name>
This would:
- Prevent accidental creation of unwanted profiles.
- Make the intent clearer by separating profile creation from profile switching.
- Improve usability when working with multiple CloudStack connections.
The current set profile could remain for profile creation/configuration to preserve backward compatibility.
Activity
DaanHoogland commentedon Aug 13, 2025
@luganofer , there is tab-completion for set profile, listing all existing profiles. This would also prevent you from mis-typing. Would that be enough?
And say we add
switch profile, would we still allow switching usingset profile <name>, or would you expect that to error out if the name exists?If we want to avoid all misunderstandings we should deprecate
set profile <name>and create bothswitchandcreatecommands.I’ve been using cmk for very long and must admit I bumped into to this once, over the years. That does not give me a big feel of urgency to fix it. (not completely against it but just wonder if it has enough value to change it)
luganofer commentedon Aug 13, 2025
Hi @DaanHoogland ,
I completely agree with you.
It's not urgent, it's just an idea for improvement.
The tab autocomplete works well and is very useful. But I think it's much better to have two different commands for creating and switching between profiles to avoid errors and confusions.
shwstppr commentedon Aug 27, 2025
@DaanHoogland @luganofer what do you expect
create profileto do? Just create a new profile and not switch to it?My opinion is to keep it simple and just add a
switchcommand.DaanHoogland commentedon Aug 27, 2025
so switch is set but do not create, right? sounds good enough to me.
feature: add switch profile command
shwstppr commentedon Aug 28, 2025
@luganofer can you please check #192? You can get the binary with changes in the PR
feature: add switch profile command (apache#192)
yadvr commentedon Sep 18, 2026
fwiw, the way cmk designed was for users to use tab-tab, as in "set profile " which lists the profile which they tab+select an existing profile or create a new one.