Guide

How to open links in a specific browser profile.

When you click a link in a mail or chat app, Chrome opens it in the profile whose window you used last. With several accounts, that puts a link for one account into the session of another. Donut Browser can be your system’s default browser and ask which profile opens each link. Scripts can open a URL in a named profile through the local API. You need Donut Browser installed (not the portable Windows build) and at least one profile.

1. Make Donut the default browser

1. Open Settings (Cmd/Ctrl+,) and go to Default Browser.
2. Click Set as default browser.

What happens next depends on the system:

The row then reads “Donut Browser is your default browser”, with an Active chip in place of the button. The portable Windows build has no Default Browser section.

2. Click a link and choose the profile

Click a link in any app. Donut comes to the front and shows Open link with the link’s host and path and a copy button.

• Profiles that are running have a green Running badge, and the first running profile is selected.
• With 6 profiles or more, a search box finds profiles by name, proxy or VPN name, or group.
• Each row shows the profile’s operating system, proxy or VPN, and group, and marks password-protected and ephemeral profiles.

Choose the profile and click Open, press Enter, or double-click the row. If the profile runs, the link opens in a new tab of that browser. If it is stopped, Donut launches it with the link. A profile that is starting or stopping cannot take the link until it is done.

Before a stopped profile starts, Donut runs its usual launch checks. A timezone mismatch with the proxy can stop the launch, and the picker then shows an error.

Donut asks every time

Donut has no rule that sends links from one site to one profile. It always shows Open link. There is no command-line flag or donut:// link that picks a profile either: a URL passed to the app opens the same picker.

To open links in one profile without a question, use the API below from a script, a launcher or a keyboard tool.

Open a URL in a profile from a script

POST /v1/profiles/{id}/open-url opens a URL in a profile. If the profile is stopped, Donut launches it with a window. If it runs, the URL opens in a new tab. If the profile runs on a remote machine, that session goes to the URL. The route needs Pro, Team or Enterprise; other plans get 402. Turn on the local API and export the token as DONUT_API_KEY first.

curl -sS -X POST http://127.0.0.1:10108/v1/profiles/<profile id>/open-url \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DONUT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://mail.example.com/inbox"}'

async function openIn(profileId, url) {
  const res = await fetch(
    `http://127.0.0.1:10108/v1/profiles/${profileId}/open-url`,
    {
      method: "POST",
      headers: {
        Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.DONUT_API_KEY}`,
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({ url }),
    },
  );
  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`open-url failed: ${res.status}`);
}

import os, requests

def open_in(profile_id: str, url: str) -> None:
    response = requests.post(
        f"http://127.0.0.1:10108/v1/profiles/{profile_id}/open-url",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['DONUT_API_KEY']}"},
        json={"url": url},
        timeout=60,
    )
    response.raise_for_status()

Find a profile’s ID in its panel (Overview), in the table’s ID column when the window is wide, or with GET /v1/profiles. A small shell function gives you one command per account:

# ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc
open_in() {
  curl -sS -X POST "http://127.0.0.1:10108/v1/profiles/$1/open-url" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $DONUT_API_KEY" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d "{\"url\": \"$2\"}"
}
# open_in <profile id> https://example.com

Only http, https and about:blank addresses are allowed. Unlike a launch from the picker, a launch from the API is not stopped by a timezone mismatch; the app shows a warning instead.

Troubleshooting

Related

• Profiles and fingerprints: the setting in the app.
• Settings and shortcuts: every setting.
• How to run several browser profiles at once with Playwright

The link picker is free. Opening URLs by API is part of Pro.

Last updated October 30, 2026.