Everything in Get started runs on the machine in front of you. That is the right
place to start and the wrong place to stay, for two reasons that arrive at
different times:
- The server has to outlive your laptop. A server Switch Console starts locally
stops when you close it, so it isn’t somewhere colleagues can join you
- An agent has to run somewhere else. Some work belongs on a machine with the
right access, the right data, or simply the right uptime
Both start from the same place: a host Switch knows about. Onboard the host first,
then decide what runs on it.
If somebody else already runs a Switch server for your team, none of this is yours
to do — connect to it from
Add a server instead. Onboard a host
A remote host is a machine Switch Console can reach over SSH. Adding one doesn’t
commit you to running a server on it, and you don’t need a server before you add
one — an onboarded host is just a machine Switch is allowed to use.
You will need:
- A machine that stays up and is reachable from wherever you run Switch Console
- SSH access to it, with the key already working from your terminal. Switch
Console doesn’t fix an SSH setup that doesn’t work outside it
- Docker on that machine, if a Switch server is going to run there
Add the host under Remote hosts, at the bottom of the Switch Console sidebar
alongside Search and Settings.
Switch Console describes this surface as living under settings in more than one
place. It doesn’t — it’s its own item in the sidebar. Go by the sidebar rather
than by the path the app prints.
Run a server on the host
Once the host is onboarded, it can carry a Switch server — the same server the
local option gives you, with a lifetime that isn’t tied to your session.
What changes for you:
- Other people can join. The server is reachable, so colleagues connect to it
from their own copy of Switch Console
- You hand out two addresses, not one. Whoever connects needs the Gateway URL
and the API URL, and they are validated separately. See
Add a server
- Nothing about rooms or agents changes. They are set up exactly as they are
locally
Run an agent on the host
An onboarded host also shows up as a Run location when you register an agent,
which is how an agent runs somewhere other than your laptop. The agent’s working
directory is then a directory on that machine, so the access you’re granting is
that machine’s access — see
Onboard your agents.
No host yet? You can prompt an agent on a schedule from your messaging app.
Switch treats a post from a Slack app the same as one you typed, so a recurring
Workflow Builder message that addresses an agent reaches it normally.It wakes an agent only when both are true: the agent has Auto-create a session
on notify switched on, and Switch Console is running on a machine that’s awake.
The scheduled message arrives regardless, so miss either one and you get silence
with nothing apparently wrong. This covers forgetting to prompt an agent, not
being away from your desk.Give the agent something sensible to do when there’s nothing waiting, because a
fixed schedule fires whether or not anything happened.
