> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.research.prbe.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Authentication and accounts > Signing in, switching accounts and signing out — through the wizard, and the scriptable equivalents. Almost everything on this page is a screen in the wizard. Reach for the wizard when you are at a keyboard; reach for the commands when a script is. ```bash theme={null} npx probe-research # → Account ``` | What you want | The wizard | The scriptable form | | ---------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------ | | Sign in | **Account → Sign in** | `probe login` | | Sign in as someone else | **Account → Sign in as a different account** | `probe login --context ` | | Switch between accounts already on this device | **Account → Switch to an account saved here** | `probe context use ` | | Sign out | **Sign out** (on the main menu) | `probe logout` | | See who you are | The **On this device** block, every screen | `probe whoami` | | Mint a token for CI | — | `probe token create` | The wizard shows you the state before you act on it: which account is answering, whether its credential still validates, and whether a shell variable is overriding the file. That is the reason to prefer it — the commands each do one thing and none of them tells you what the others found. ## Signing in ```bash theme={null} npx probe-research install ``` Authorization happens before any other screen: the wizard opens your browser and you approve the device there. Nothing is pasted. If the website gave you a ten-character code, pass it as an argument and the wizard uses it instead: ```bash theme={null} npx probe-research install ABCD123456 ``` On a device that already holds a credential, it asks whether to keep the current account or continue with the code — which is how a wrong-account install gets corrected. ```bash theme={null} probe login ``` Bare `probe login` runs the same browser handoff (RFC 8628 device flow with PKCE). The result is written to `~/.config/probe/config.json`. ```bash theme={null} probe whoami ``` ```bash theme={null} probe login --token probe_pat_xxxxxxxx # verified against GET /v1/me probe login --endpoint-only --base-url https://api.example.internal probe login --ingest-token ... --hmac-secret ... # passive-push credentials ``` Or skip the file entirely and set `PROBE_TOKEN` in the environment. This is the air-gapped path. You can skip signing in as a separate step. The first `client.run()` or `probe run start` with no token triggers the same browser approval inline on a TTY and persists the result. `PROBE_AUTO_LOGIN=0` disables that; headless and CI keep a clean `AuthError` and should set `PROBE_TOKEN`. ## Switching accounts One machine can hold several accounts — a second team, a staging endpoint, a laptop handed on. Exactly one is active. ```bash theme={null} npx probe-research --action account ``` **Switch to an account saved here** lists every account this device already holds, with its endpoint and whether it can still authenticate, and switches to the one you pick. No browser needed. See [Accounts](/wizard/account). Accounts are stored as named **contexts**, the way `kubectl` stores clusters. ```bash theme={null} probe context list # every saved account, credentials redacted probe context show staging # how one resolves, environment overrides included probe context use staging # switch (creates it empty if new) probe context delete staging # remove it and its stored credentials ``` A context carries the endpoint, its credentials, and its **anchors** — the active workspace and project that scope commands like `probe run start`. The same project name can exist in two tenants. Under the wrong context a list command returns the *other* tenant's same-named copy instead of erroring, so a healthy project can read as wiped. **Check which account is active before concluding anything is missing** — the wizard's summary block, or `probe context list`. ## Signing out ```bash theme={null} npx probe-research # → Sign out ``` It names what it is about to do, and it names anything it cannot do — an exported credential in your shell, for instance. ```bash theme={null} probe logout ``` Either way, signing out is not just forgetting a token: * the token this device holds is **revoked**, not merely deleted * the active context is cleared * session capture stops, so it cannot keep uploading to the account you just left * local import history is cleared **The plugins stay installed.** Removing those is Uninstall — see [Diagnose and repair](/wizard/diagnose#uninstalling). Credentials in your shell outrank the config file. `PROBE_TOKEN`, `PROBE_MCP_TOKEN`, `PROBE_INGEST_TOKEN` and `PROBE_SERVICE_TOKEN` are all checked before it, so after a sign-out the CLI still authenticates if one of those is exported. No command can unset a variable in your parent shell — the wizard and `probe doctor` name any they find instead. ## Tokens This one has no wizard screen: minting is deliberately a browser act, and the secret is yours to copy. ```bash theme={null} probe token create --name ci-bot --scope read --scope write probe token create --name reader --scope read --no-browser probe token list # secrets are never shown probe token revoke ``` | Scope | Grants | | -------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | `read` | Every read | | `write` | Creating and amending | | `delete` | Permanent deletes — projects, runs, artifacts, sub-notes | | `admin` | Never granted by `token create` | Omitting `--scope` requests read + write + delete. A token can never exceed the scopes your own role confers. **Minting deliberately requires a human in a browser** — a leaked token must not be able to mint more tokens. `token create` prints a URL and a code and waits for approval. The secret is printed **once** and never stored. Copy it then. Revoking a teammate's token needs the dashboard. ## The MCP credential The MCP server is read-only and prefers a separately minted read-only token. The wizard pairs one during install; these are for inspecting and rotating it. ```bash theme={null} probe mcp status # where the credential comes from, and whether it still works probe mcp token set # store it — re-run to rotate; it replaces, never appends probe mcp token unset probe mcp headers # the Authorization header as JSON probe mcp env # the export line, for clients that only read the environment ``` It falls back to `PROBE_TOKEN` for local development, and exposes no mutation tools either way. ## Resolution order Credentials in the **environment outrank the config file**. In order: ``` PROBE_TOKEN user token → /v1 PROBE_MCP_TOKEN read-only → MCP PROBE_INGEST_TOKEN ingest token → /ingest PROBE_SERVICE_TOKEN service → machine callers ↓ ~/.config/probe/config.json (the active context) ``` Plus `PROBE_BASE_URL` for the endpoint and `PROBE_HMAC_SECRET` for optional body signing. ```bash theme={null} probe doctor # "Credential from" says which one actually resolved ``` ## In CI Skip the wizard entirely. ```bash theme={null} export PROBE_TOKEN=probe_pat_xxxxxxxx export PROBE_BASE_URL=https://api.research.prbe.ai export PROBE_AUTO_LOGIN=0 ``` Mint the token with `--scope read --scope write` unless the job genuinely needs to delete things. For configuring a machine unattended, see [Unattended use](/wizard/flags).