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Profiles

Profiles let you maintain separate Gaivota configurations for different contexts.

What Are Profiles?​

A profile is a complete, isolated Gaivota environment with its own:

  • Email accounts
  • Settings and preferences
  • Spam training data
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Theme settings
  • Plugin configuration

Use Cases​

Work vs Personal​

Keep work and personal email completely separate:

  • Work profile: Company accounts, professional theme, focused settings
  • Personal profile: Personal Gmail, casual theme, relaxed notifications

Multiple Projects​

Freelancers or consultants can have profiles for each client:

  • Different account setups per project
  • Separate spam training
  • Custom shortcuts for different workflows

Testing​

Developers can use profiles to:

  • Test changes without affecting main setup
  • Maintain a "clean" profile for demos
  • Experiment with settings

Creating a Profile​

  1. Open Settings (⌘,)
  2. Go to the Profiles tab
  3. Click New Profile
  4. Enter a profile name
  5. Click Create

The new profile starts fresh - no accounts or customizations.

Switching Profiles​

From Settings​

  1. Go to Settings → Profiles
  2. Click on the profile you want
  3. Click Switch to Profile

Gaivota will restart with the selected profile.

On Launch​

When you start Gaivota, it uses the last active profile.

To choose a profile at launch:

  • Hold Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows/Linux) while opening
  • A profile selector appears

Managing Profiles​

Renaming a Profile​

  1. Go to Settings → Profiles
  2. Click on the profile
  3. Click Rename
  4. Enter the new name

Deleting a Profile​

  1. Go to Settings → Profiles
  2. Click on the profile
  3. Click Delete
  4. Confirm the deletion
warning

Deleting a profile removes all its data, including accounts and settings. This cannot be undone.

Profile Data​

Each profile has its own data directory:

PlatformLocation
macOS~/Library/Application Support/com.gaivota.app/profiles/{name}
Windows%APPDATA%\com.gaivota.app\profiles\{name}
Linux~/.local/share/com.gaivota.app/profiles/{name}

Default Profile​

The first profile you create is the "default" profile. It's used when:

  • No profile is explicitly selected
  • Opening Gaivota normally

Changing Default​

  1. Go to Settings → Profiles
  2. Click on the profile you want as default
  3. Click Set as Default

Copying Settings Between Profiles​

To copy settings from one profile to another:

  1. Switch to the profile with the settings you want
  2. Go to Settings and note your preferences
  3. Switch to the target profile
  4. Apply the same settings manually

Currently, there's no automatic settings export/import between profiles.

Tips​

When to Use Profiles​

Profiles add management overhead. Use them when you need complete separation, not just for organizing accounts.

For most users:

  • Multiple accounts in one profile works fine
  • Account switching (1, 2, 3...) is fast
  • Settings apply to all accounts

Starting Fresh​

If Gaivota gets into a bad state:

  1. Create a new profile
  2. Set up your accounts fresh
  3. Keep the old profile for reference
  4. Delete old profile when confident

Backup​

To backup a profile, copy its data directory to a safe location. Restore by copying back.