Profiles

Profiles are named serial-connection settings: port, baud, framing, and the various per-session toggles. Baudrun stores every profile in a single JSON file, which makes them easy to hand-edit, version- control, or generate programmatically from inventory data.

File location

All profiles live in one file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Baudrun/profiles.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Baudrun\profiles.json
• Linux: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/Baudrun/profiles.json (usually ~/.config/Baudrun/profiles.json)

The file is a JSON array, and the array order is the sidebar order — drag rows in the sidebar to reorder (the file is rewritten on drop), or rearrange the array in a hand-edit. Baudrun loads the file once at startup; changes made while the app is running are not picked up until the next launch. Use the app UI for interactive edits, hand-edit only while the app is closed.

Sidebar

The sidebar is more than a list:

• Click a profile to open its editor; the editor’s Connect button starts the session.
• Right-click for the context menu — connect in a new window, move a live session to a new window, delete.
• Drag to reorder. Drop a row on another row to insert before it, or below the last row to move it to the end. The new order persists to profiles.json.
• Drag to tear off. Drop a row anywhere outside the sidebar — onto the terminal pane or past any window edge — and the profile opens in a new window at the drop point, already connected. Tearing off the profile you’re connected to moves the live session instead: scrollback, port, and DTR/RTS state travel with it, and the source window returns to the welcome screen.

With several windows open, profile edits, additions, deletions, and reordering made in any window appear in every other window’s sidebar immediately.

JSON schema

[
  {
    "id": "8c6b3d4f-...",
    "name": "Core-SW-01 (Aruba)",
    "portName": "/dev/cu.usbserial-AU04CDLV",
    "baudRate": 9600,
    "dataBits": 8,
    "parity": "none",
    "stopBits": "1",
    "flowControl": "none",
    "lineEnding": "cr",
    "localEcho": false,
    "highlight": true,
    "themeId": "",
    "dtrOnConnect": "default",
    "rtsOnConnect": "default",
    "dtrOnDisconnect": "default",
    "rtsOnDisconnect": "default",
    "hexView": false,
    "timestamps": false,
    "lineNumbers": false,
    "logEnabled": false,
    "autoReconnect": true,
    "backspaceKey": "del",
    "createdAt": "2026-04-17T10:15:22Z",
    "updatedAt": "2026-04-17T10:15:22Z"
  }
]

Identity + port

Field	Type	Required	Notes
id	string	yes*	UUID. Generated automatically when the app creates a profile. Required for the in-app update path. Hand-written profiles can set any unique string.
name	string	yes	Display name shown in the sidebar. Must be non-empty.
portName	string	yes	OS device path. macOS /dev/cu.usbserial-..., Linux /dev/ttyUSB0 or /dev/ttyACM0, Windows COM7. Must match what the app enumerates.

* id is only required when round-tripping through the app UI. A hand-added profile with a blank id will be loaded but can’t be updated through the form until it gets one.

Framing

Field	Type	Required	Valid values	Default
baudRate	int	yes	Any positive integer. Common: 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200.	none
dataBits	int	yes	5, 6, 7, 8	8
parity	string	yes	"none", "odd", "even", "mark", "space"	"none"
stopBits	string	yes	"1", "1.5", "2" (strings, not numbers)	"1"
flowControl	string	yes	"none", "rtscts", "xonxoff"	"none"

Shorthand “8N1” = dataBits: 8, parity: "none", stopBits: "1". Network gear is overwhelmingly 9600 8N1.

Terminal behavior

Field	Type	Valid values	Default	Purpose
lineEnding	string	"cr", "lf", "crlf"	"cr"	Byte(s) the Enter key sends. Most network gear wants CR; Linux consoles want LF; legacy/Windows sometimes CRLF.
localEcho	boolean	true / false	false	Echo typed characters locally. Enable when the device doesn’t echo.
highlight	boolean	true / false	true	Run the line-buffered regex colorizer over incoming text.
enabledHighlightPresets	string array | null	any subset of pack ids ("baudrun-default", "cisco-ios", "junos", "aruba-cx", "arista-eos", "mikrotik-routeros", "user")	null	Per-profile highlight-pack subset. null (or absent) inherits the global enabled list from Settings. An empty array means “no highlighting at all” for this profile even when highlight: true. Only consulted when highlight is true.
backspaceKey	string	"del", "bs"	"del"	What the Backspace key sends. DEL (0x7f) matches VT100/xterm; BS (0x08) for some older Cisco/Foundry gear. Wrong setting surfaces as ^H echoed on screen.
hexView	boolean	true / false	false	Render incoming bytes as a hex dump (16 per line, ASCII sidebar). Binary protocols, firmware loaders.
timestamps	boolean	true / false	false	Prefix each line with [HH:MM:SS.mmm].
lineNumbers	boolean	true / false	false	Prefix each line with a session-local counter. Resets to 1 on every reconnect.
themeId	string	any theme ID or ""	""	Per-profile theme override. Empty = use the global default theme from Settings.

Paste safety

UARTs on the receiving end of a paste are easy to overrun — even modest multi-line blobs can outpace a switch’s input buffer at 9600 baud. Two complementary defences, both on by default.

Field	Type	Default	Purpose
pasteWarnMultiline	boolean	true	Show a confirmation dialog before pasting anything containing a newline. Catches the “I meant to paste one line” copy-paste mistake.
pasteSlow	boolean	true	Pace pasted bytes one at a time with pasteCharDelayMs between each, instead of writing the whole buffer at once.
pasteCharDelayMs	int | null	10	Per-byte delay in milliseconds when pasteSlow is on. 10 ms = 100 bytes/s = effectively 1000 baud — slow enough for any device’s input buffer to drain between bytes. Bump higher (20–50 ms) for known-fragile UARTs, or lower (1–5 ms) when you’ve confirmed the target keeps up. Ignored when pasteSlow is false.

The Send Hex… path doesn’t use the slow-paste throttle — hex sends write the whole parsed byte vector through in one go, paced only by what the UART itself can absorb. If your target can’t keep up with that, paste the equivalent bytes from the keyboard buffer instead so they go through pasteSlow / pasteCharDelayMs.

Control lines (DTR/RTS)

Four policies for when the app asserts/deasserts the DTR and RTS lines on connect/disconnect. All four accept the same enum:

Value	Meaning
"default"	Leave the line in the OS default state (both asserted on Unix; RTS asserted on Windows).
""	Same as "default". Treated as unset.
"assert"	Force the line high at the bookend.
"deassert"	Force the line low at the bookend.

Field	Applies at
dtrOnConnect	Port open
rtsOnConnect	Port open
dtrOnDisconnect	Port close
rtsOnDisconnect	Port close

Common uses:

• RS-485 direction. Some adapters use RTS to toggle TX/RX; pin it.
• Arduino DTR reset. Deassert DTR on connect to avoid auto-reset on port open.
• Device state gating. Some firmwares require a specific DTR state to accept input.

Live DTR/RTS toggle pills in the session header let you flip the lines mid-session regardless of the connect-time policy.

Session features

Field	Type	Default	Purpose
logEnabled	boolean	false	Record raw incoming bytes to a timestamped file. Directory configured in Settings → Advanced (defaults to <support>/logs/).
autoReconnect	boolean	true	On disconnect (port disappeared), poll for the port to reappear (1s interval, 30s timeout) and reopen with the same config. Preserves the scrollback backlog across the gap.

Timestamps

Field	Type	Notes
createdAt	RFC3339 string	Managed by the app. Preserved on update. Don’t touch in hand-edits unless you’re forging history.
updatedAt	RFC3339 string	Managed by the app. Bumped on every UI edit.

Examples

For a complete reference with every field set to a representative value, see docs-next/public/examples/profile.example.json. The task-focused snippets below omit fields they don’t need to make their point — the app fills defaults from the table above for anything missing.

Standard network switch (Cisco, Aruba, etc.)

{
  "name": "Edge-SW-02",
  "portName": "/dev/cu.usbserial-AU04CDLV",
  "baudRate": 9600,
  "dataBits": 8,
  "parity": "none",
  "stopBits": "1",
  "flowControl": "none",
  "lineEnding": "cr",
  "highlight": true,
  "backspaceKey": "del"
}

RuggedCom with USB-C console

USB-C consoles (RuggedCom RST2228, newer Cisco, HPE/Aruba) are CDC-ACM, so the port name looks different (cu.usbmodem... on macOS). Otherwise the same:

{
  "name": "RST2228-Plant-A",
  "portName": "/dev/cu.usbmodem00000000001A1",
  "baudRate": 57600,
  "dataBits": 8,
  "parity": "none",
  "stopBits": "1",
  "flowControl": "none",
  "lineEnding": "crlf"
}

Arduino with DTR-reset avoidance

Deassert DTR on connect so the port open doesn’t reset the board:

{
  "name": "Uno-Prototype",
  "portName": "/dev/cu.usbmodem14201",
  "baudRate": 115200,
  "dataBits": 8,
  "parity": "none",
  "stopBits": "1",
  "flowControl": "none",
  "lineEnding": "lf",
  "localEcho": true,
  "dtrOnConnect": "deassert",
  "autoReconnect": true
}

Modbus RTU debug

Hex view for binary protocol inspection, RTS/CTS for half-duplex adapters, auto-reconnect for flaky USB, slow-paste tuned wider than default since small embedded targets often need it:

{
  "name": "Modbus-PLC",
  "portName": "/dev/cu.usbserial-0001",
  "baudRate": 19200,
  "dataBits": 8,
  "parity": "even",
  "stopBits": "1",
  "flowControl": "rtscts",
  "lineEnding": "cr",
  "hexView": true,
  "timestamps": true,
  "autoReconnect": true,
  "pasteSlow": true,
  "pasteCharDelayMs": 25
}

Bulk provisioning

Because the file is a plain JSON array, generating many profiles at once is a scripting job. Two common approaches:

From inventory CSV with jq

Given switches.csv with columns name,port,baud:

tail -n +2 switches.csv | \
  jq -Rs 'split("\n") | map(select(length > 0)) |
    map(split(",")) |
    map({
      name: .[0],
      portName: .[1],
      baudRate: (.[2] | tonumber),
      dataBits: 8,
      parity: "none",
      stopBits: "1",
      flowControl: "none",
      lineEnding: "cr",
      highlight: true,
      backspaceKey: "del",
      dtrOnConnect: "default",
      rtsOnConnect: "default",
      dtrOnDisconnect: "default",
      rtsOnDisconnect: "default"
    })' > profiles.json

From Python

import json, uuid
from datetime import datetime, timezone

inventory = [
    ("Core-01", "/dev/cu.usbserial-A1", 9600),
    ("Core-02", "/dev/cu.usbserial-A2", 9600),
    ("Edge-01", "/dev/cu.usbserial-B1", 115200),
]

now = datetime.now(timezone.utc).isoformat().replace("+00:00", "Z")

profiles = [
    {
        "id": str(uuid.uuid4()),
        "name": name,
        "portName": port,
        "baudRate": baud,
        "dataBits": 8,
        "parity": "none",
        "stopBits": "1",
        "flowControl": "none",
        "lineEnding": "cr",
        "localEcho": False,
        "highlight": True,
        "backspaceKey": "del",
        "dtrOnConnect": "default",
        "rtsOnConnect": "default",
        "dtrOnDisconnect": "default",
        "rtsOnDisconnect": "default",
        "hexView": False,
        "timestamps": False,
        "lineNumbers": False,
        "logEnabled": False,
        "autoReconnect": True,
        "pasteWarnMultiline": True,
        "pasteSlow": True,
        "pasteCharDelayMs": 10,
        "enabledHighlightPresets": None,
        "createdAt": now,
        "updatedAt": now,
    }
    for name, port, baud in inventory
]

with open("profiles.json", "w") as f:
    json.dump(profiles, f, indent=2)

Close the app, drop profiles.json into the config dir, relaunch.

Hand-editing etiquette

• Quit Baudrun first. The app reads once at startup and rewrites the whole file on every save. Hand-edits during a running session will be clobbered on the next UI edit.
• Validation is strict. The app refuses to load a profile whose baud rate ≤ 0, data bits outside 5-8, or parity/stopBits/flowControl/ lineEnding outside the enum. Fix typos before relaunching.
• IDs must be unique within the file. Duplicates cause ambiguity on update and may get deduped unpredictably.
• Don’t bump createdAt. Not dangerous, but future sorting features might rely on it.

Version control

A natural workflow for shared environments: keep profiles.json in a private git repo, symlink it into <support>/profiles.json on each workstation. Hand-edits become commits; diffs show who changed what when.

The file has no secrets (passwords aren’t stored, since this is a serial terminal, not SSH), so a shared team repo works without additional encryption.

Sharing single profiles

There’s no per-profile file format today. Workarounds:

• Copy a single object out of the JSON array and paste into a gist / email. Recipient merges it into their own profiles.json.
• Keep a shared JSON snippets file alongside profiles.json and import by hand.

A profiles export/import UI is a candidate feature if this becomes a real workflow. File an issue with the use case.