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CLI & Protocol

Wesley Pyburn (TechNobo) edited this page Jul 23, 2021 · 3 revisions

Put simply:

The program can be operated without a GUI at all. Running the program from the command line or Protocol is also possible. For the simplest idea of what the CLI does, use: TcNo-Acc-Switcher.exe --help in the command line. See a further breakdown below.

The protocol is also simple: use tcno:\\ followed by a platform's identifier, and then an account's identifier. For example: tcno:\\s:76561198064588130 - The platform: Steam, followed by the account's SteamID (the unique identifier). You can also include additional arguments, like a PersonaState for Steam. To log in as Away on Steam, for example, you would use: tcno:\\s:76561198064588130:3

In-depth CLI

Confused about how to get to the CLI? Open a new file browser and navigate to the TcNo Account Switcher's install directory, click the top where the folder location is and type "CMD". Hit enter, then enter: TcNo-Acc-Switcher.exe --help and see what happens. Congratulations, you've now used your first CLI.

Opening to specific platform switchers

You can skip picking a platform. Use a platform's name as an argument to open the account switcher to that page immediately. For example: TcNo-Acc-Switcher.exe battlenet to open the account switcher to the Battle.Net platform. Recognised platforms are: steam, origin, ubisoft, battlenet, epic, riot. The first letter (at least for now) is what is used as a platform's identifier. You will see examples below. (At the time of writing, this does not support abbreviations)

Switching accounts using the CLI

The CLI is simple. Use TcNo-Acc-Switcher.exe followed by a +, a platform identifier and then an account's identifier. Each part of an argument is separated by a colon (:). For example: TcNo-Acc-Switcher.exe +s:76561198064588130. Some platforms have an optional argument. Steam has a PersonaState. To login to Steam as Away, a user would use TcNo-Acc-Switcher.exe +s:76561198064588130:3 for example.

The easiest way to demo this is to Right-Click any account, and click "Create a Shortcut", which places a shortcut onto the desktop. Viewing the shortcut's properties will give you the required arguments if you need a better example.

Optional arguments:

You can also use arguments after a switch accounts command, such as +s:76561198064588130 -silent to launch Steam in silent mode. Simply adding a space and -silent to a shortcut will get Steam to open to the Tray, instead of a full window. You can add as many of these as you want.

Logging out of accounts using the CLI

Switing accounts is all good... But what about logging into new accounts? Most of the time using the "Log out" button on a platform stops that account from working in the TcNo Account Switcher. There's an "Add new" button for most platforms, but to do this from the CLI use the following argument: logout:<platform> where <platform> is one of the platform names above or one of the accepted abbreviations.

Abbreviations

Accepted abbreviations (where applicable) are as follows:

  • BattleNet: b, bnet, battlenet, blizzard
  • Epic Games: e, epic, epicgames
  • Origin: o, origin, ea
  • Riot Games: r, riot, riotgames
  • Steam: s, steam
  • Ubisoft Connect: u, ubi, ubisoft, ubisoftconnect, uplay

Other

Some other things to note are below:

  • Multiple arguments are accepted. Separate with space.
  • Use v, vv, or verbose to see debug information on what exactly is happening when using the CLI. this may help diagnose errors
  • Lost? Use -h or --help

In-depth Protocol

The protocol is currently just for swapping accounts. Using tcno:\\ in the Run dialogue box, or a link, followed by a platform identifier and an account name is the only way to swap accounts with this for now. As see above under "The protocol". More functionality will likely be added to this at some stage in the future.