Nintendo Switch Parental Controls

A CLI and MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that expose Nintendo Switch Parental Controls as commands and AI-accessible tools. It wraps the pynintendoparental library and allows humans and AI assistants to monitor and manage parental control settings on Nintendo Switch devices.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Prerequisites
• CLI Usage
  • Installation
  • Authentication
    • Interactive login
    • Storing your token
  • Global Options
  • Commands
• Caching
• MCP Server
  • Running the Server
  • Environment Variables
  • MCP Client Configuration
  • Available Tools
• Development
• CI
• Legal
• License

Features

• Authentication: Interactive Nintendo OAuth login flow, or pre-configured session token
• Device monitoring: List devices, view playtime, remaining time, sync status
• Playtime controls: Set daily limits, add extra time, configure per-day-of-week schedules
• Bedtime controls: Set bedtime alarms and end times
• Restriction controls: Set restriction mode (forced termination vs. alarm), content restriction levels
• Player tracking: View player profiles and today's app usage
• Application management: List apps, manage the allow-list (bypass content restrictions)

Prerequisites

• uv — install once, no Python or clone needed:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

CLI Usage

The switch-parental-controls CLI gives you direct terminal access to all parental control features.

Installation

No clone required — run directly with uvx:

uvx switch-parental-controls --help

Or install globally:

pip install switch-parental-controls
switch-parental-controls --help

Authentication

Interactive login

switch-parental-controls login

This starts an interactive flow:

1. A Nintendo login URL is printed — open it in your browser
2. Log in with your Nintendo Account
3. Right-click the "Select this person" button and copy the link
4. Paste the copied URL at the prompt

On success, the token is saved to ~/.config/switch-parental-controls/credentials (respects XDG_CONFIG_HOME) — all other commands will use it automatically. No further setup needed.

The CLI also prints an export SWITCH_PARENTAL_CONTROLS_SESSION_TOKEN=... snippet after login, so you can copy the token value for use in other tools or scripts.

Storing your token

The token lookup order is: environment variable → credentials file.

Credentials file (recommended):

The login command writes the token here automatically. To store it manually:

mkdir -p "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/switch-parental-controls"
echo "your-token-here" > "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/switch-parental-controls/credentials"
chmod 600 "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/switch-parental-controls/credentials"

The default path is ~/.config/switch-parental-controls/credentials; set XDG_CONFIG_HOME to use a different base directory. The file must contain only the token, one line, no quotes. The chmod 600 keeps it readable by your user only.

Environment variable (shell profile):

# Add to ~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc, or equivalent
export SWITCH_PARENTAL_CONTROLS_SESSION_TOKEN="your-token-here"

The environment variable takes precedence over the credentials file, so this is also useful for temporarily overriding a stored token.

Inline for one-off runs:

SWITCH_PARENTAL_CONTROLS_SESSION_TOKEN="your-token-here" switch-parental-controls today-summary

Note: Session tokens can expire. If you get authentication errors, repeat the login flow.

Global Options

switch-parental-controls [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  -t, --timezone TEXT   IANA timezone  [env: SWITCH_PARENTAL_CONTROLS_TIMEZONE; default: Europe/London]
  -l, --lang TEXT       Language code  [env: SWITCH_PARENTAL_CONTROLS_LANG; default: en-GB]

Commands

All device commands accept an optional [DEVICE] argument — a device name or ID. If omitted and the account has exactly one Switch, it is auto-selected. Run list-devices once to populate the local cache.

Device info:

switch-parental-controls list-devices [--format markdown|json]
switch-parental-controls get-device [DEVICE] [--format markdown|json]
switch-parental-controls today-summary [DEVICE] [--format markdown|json]
switch-parental-controls monthly-summary [DEVICE] [--year YEAR --month MONTH] [--player PLAYER_ID] [--no-cache] [--format markdown|json]
switch-parental-controls playtime [DEVICE] [--year YEAR --month MONTH] [--day DAY] [--player PLAYER_ID] [--no-cache] [--format markdown|json]

# DEVICE may be a name or an ID
switch-parental-controls today-summary "Switch #1"
switch-parental-controls today-summary abc123def456

Playtime limits:

switch-parental-controls set-playtime-limit [DEVICE] --minutes 120   # set 2-hour limit
switch-parental-controls set-playtime-limit [DEVICE] --no-limit       # remove limit
switch-parental-controls add-extra-time [DEVICE] 30                   # add 30 extra minutes today
switch-parental-controls set-timer-mode [DEVICE] DAILY
switch-parental-controls set-timer-mode [DEVICE] EACH_DAY_OF_THE_WEEK

Per-day restrictions:

# Enable playtime + bedtime on Monday
switch-parental-controls set-day-restrictions [DEVICE] MONDAY \
  --playtime-enabled --max-playtime-minutes 90 \
  --bedtime-enabled \
  --bedtime-alarm-hour 21 --bedtime-alarm-minute 0 \
  --bedtime-end-hour 7 --bedtime-end-minute 0

# Disable all restrictions on Saturday
switch-parental-controls set-day-restrictions [DEVICE] SATURDAY \
  --playtime-disabled --bedtime-disabled

Restriction and content controls:

switch-parental-controls set-restriction-mode [DEVICE] FORCED_TERMINATION
switch-parental-controls set-restriction-mode [DEVICE] ALARM
switch-parental-controls set-content-restriction [DEVICE] CHILDREN
switch-parental-controls set-bedtime-alarm [DEVICE] 21 0    # 21:00
switch-parental-controls set-bedtime-alarm [DEVICE] 0 0     # disable
switch-parental-controls set-bedtime-end [DEVICE] 7 0       # 07:00

Players and applications:

switch-parental-controls list-players [DEVICE] [--format json]
switch-parental-controls get-player [DEVICE] <player-id>
switch-parental-controls list-applications [DEVICE]
switch-parental-controls set-app-allow-list [DEVICE] <app-id> --allow
switch-parental-controls set-app-allow-list [DEVICE] <app-id> --no-allow

# Per-player usage data — use --player to filter monthly-summary and playtime
switch-parental-controls monthly-summary [DEVICE] --year 2026 --month 4 --player <player-id>
switch-parental-controls playtime [DEVICE] --year 2026 --month 4 --player <player-id>
switch-parental-controls playtime [DEVICE] --player <player-id>   # current month

# Single-day playtime — use --day to get one specific date instead of the whole month
switch-parental-controls playtime [DEVICE] --year 2026 --month 5 --day 15
switch-parental-controls playtime [DEVICE] --year 2026 --month 5 --day 15 --player <player-id>

Cache management:

switch-parental-controls clear-cache                          # clear entire cache
switch-parental-controls clear-cache --device "Switch #1"    # clear for one device
switch-parental-controls clear-cache --year 2026             # clear all months of a year
switch-parental-controls clear-cache --year 2026 --month 4   # clear a specific month

Start the MCP server:

switch-parental-controls mcp

Caching

monthly-summary and playtime cache their API responses locally so past months don't require a network round-trip on subsequent calls.

What is cached: Raw API responses for months where both --year and --month are provided explicitly and the month is not the current calendar month. Data for the current month — and requests without an explicit year/month — always fetch live from the Nintendo API.

Cache location: ~/.config/switch-parental-controls/cache/ (respects XDG_CONFIG_HOME), organised as {device-id}/{YYYY}-{MM}.json.

Bypassing the cache: Pass --no-cache to monthly-summary or playtime to skip both reading from and writing to the cache. Useful when data looks unexpectedly stale.

Clearing the cache: Use the clear-cache command (CLI) or switch_clear_cache tool (MCP) — see the command examples above.

MCP Server

Running the Server

uvx switch-parental-controls mcp

No clone or install required — uvx fetches the package from PyPI and runs it in an isolated environment.

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
SWITCH_PARENTAL_CONTROLS_SESSION_TOKEN	Yes*	—	Nintendo session token
SWITCH_PARENTAL_CONTROLS_TIMEZONE	No	Europe/London	IANA timezone (e.g. America/New_York)
SWITCH_PARENTAL_CONTROLS_LANG	No	en-GB	Language code (e.g. en-US)

*The token can also be provided via the credentials file (~/.config/switch-parental-controls/credentials by default; respects XDG_CONFIG_HOME). Since the CLI login command writes to that same file, running switch-parental-controls login once is sufficient — the MCP server will pick up the stored token automatically, no environment variable needed. The only exception where no token is needed upfront at all is when using the interactive switch_get_login_url / switch_complete_login tools to authenticate.

MCP Client Configuration

Add to your MCP client configuration (e.g. Claude Desktop claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nintendo": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["switch-parental-controls", "mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SWITCH_PARENTAL_CONTROLS_SESSION_TOKEN": "your-token-here",
        "SWITCH_PARENTAL_CONTROLS_TIMEZONE": "America/New_York",
        "SWITCH_PARENTAL_CONTROLS_LANG": "en-US"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Authentication Tools

Tool	Description
switch_get_login_url	Generate the Nintendo login URL and step-by-step instructions
switch_complete_login	Complete login with the redirect URL from the browser

Devices

Tool	Description
switch_list_devices	List all Nintendo Switch devices on the account
switch_get_device	Get detailed status for a specific device
switch_get_today_summary	Get today's usage summary for a device
switch_get_monthly_summary	Get monthly usage summary (optionally for a specific month)
switch_get_playtime	Get per-day playtime breakdown for a month (current month or historical)
switch_clear_cache	Clear locally cached historic play data (all, by device, year, or month)

Playtime Controls

Tool	Description
switch_set_daily_playtime_limit	Set the daily playtime limit (0-360 min, or -1 to remove)
switch_add_extra_time	Add extra playtime for today
switch_set_timer_mode	Switch between DAILY and EACH_DAY_OF_THE_WEEK modes
switch_set_day_restrictions	Set per-day playtime and bedtime restrictions

Restriction Controls

Tool	Description
switch_set_restriction_mode	Set FORCED_TERMINATION or ALARM mode
switch_set_content_restriction_level	Set age-based content restrictions
switch_set_bedtime_alarm	Set the bedtime alarm time (16:00-23:00)
switch_set_bedtime_end_time	Set when bedtime ends (05:00-09:00)

Players

Tool	Description
switch_list_players	List all players on a device
switch_get_player	Get player details including apps played today

Applications

Tool	Description
switch_list_applications	List all tracked applications on a device
switch_set_app_allow_list	Add/remove an app from the content restriction allow-list

Development

Requires mise:

# Install dependencies
mise run install

# Run tests
mise run test

# Run linter
mise run lint

# Fix lint issues
mise run lint-fix

# Open MCP Inspector (browser UI to test tools interactively)
mise run inspect

MCP Inspector

The inspect task launches the MCP Inspector — a browser-based UI for testing MCP tools interactively without needing a full AI client.

mise run inspect

This opens the inspector connected to the switch_parental_controls server. You can call any tool directly from the UI, which is useful for testing the authentication flow and verifying tool responses.

CI

Tests run automatically on pull requests via GitHub Actions. See .github/workflows/test.yml.

Legal

Nintendo and Nintendo Switch are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nintendo in the U.S. and/or other countries.

This project is not affiliated, funded, or in any way associated with Nintendo.

License

MIT