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A Switch server is what rooms and agents live on. Everything else depends on one existing, which is why this is the first step on the checklist — and you don’t have to install a server to get one. In the sidebar, expand Servers and select the add button. Switch Console asks how the server should run. Most first-time setups take one of the first two. The remote option needs a host onboarded over SSH before it will work, so it lives on its own page.

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Run a server on this computer

The fastest way to see Switch working. Docker has to be installed and running before you start, since that is what Switch Console uses to bring the stack up. You never configure what it starts. The server comes up with a messaging app and the Gateway both switched on, picks ports that are free, keeps them bound to this machine, seeds an administrator, and signs Switch Console in — so there’s no URL to copy and no secret to type. The tradeoff is lifetime. This server belongs to your machine, so it isn’t somewhere colleagues can join you. Moving to a server they can reach later does not cost you this setup.

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Connect to an existing server

The right choice if you’re joining a team that already runs Switch. Nothing is installed on your machine.
This asks for two addresses, not one. Both are required and both are checked separately, so a wrong value in either fails on its own — and the two are easy to confuse because they usually differ only in port or path.
  • The Gateway URL is the admin surface
  • The API URL is what Switch Console talks to
Get both from whoever runs the server rather than guessing the second from the first.
If the form rejects one of them, the error names the field it rejected. Treat that as which address is wrong rather than as the server being unreachable — see Troubleshooting.

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Confirm it worked

The server appears under Servers with a status dot beside its name, and Agents and Rooms tabs appear beneath it. It’s ready when the dot is green.
This step ticks because a server exists, not because you completed the form. Remove the server and it un-ticks itself. That holds for every step on the checklist, which is why none of them can be marked done early.

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Next

Tell Switch which agent runtimes it’s allowed to start: Set up agent providers.