Command line tutorial

Some developers like using the command line extensively. Godot is designed to be friendly to them, so here are the steps for working entirely from the command line. Given the engine relies on almost no external libraries, initialization times are pretty fast, making it suitable for this workflow.

Note

On Windows and Linux, you can run a Godot binary in a terminal by specifying its relative or absolute path.

On macOS, the process is different due to Godot being contained within an .app bundle (which is a folder, not a file). To run a Godot binary from a terminal on macOS, you have to cd to the folder where the Godot application bundle is located, then run Godot.app/Contents/MacOS/Godot followed by any command line arguments. If you've renamed the application bundle from Godot to another name, make sure to edit this command line accordingly.

Command line reference

Legend

• Available in editor builds, debug export templates and release export templates.

• Available in editor builds and debug export templates only.

• Only available in editor builds.

Note that unknown command line arguments have no effect whatsoever. The engine will not warn you when using a command line argument that doesn't exist with a given build type.

General options

Command	Description
-h, --help	Display the list of command line options.
--version	Display the version string.
-v, --verbose	Use verbose stdout mode.
-q, --quiet	Quiet mode, silences stdout messages. Errors are still displayed.

Run options

Command	Description
--, ++	Separator for user-provided arguments. Following arguments are not used by the engine, but can be read from OS.get_cmdline_user_args().
-e, --editor	Start the editor instead of running the scene.
-p, --project-manager	Start the Project Manager, even if a project is auto-detected.
--debug-server <uri>	Start the editor debug server (<protocol>://<host/IP>[:<port>], e.g. tcp://127.0.0.1:6007)
--quit	Quit after the first iteration.
--quit-after	Quit after the given number of iterations. Set to 0 to disable.
-l, --language <locale>	Use a specific locale. <locale> follows the format language_Script_COUNTRY_VARIANT where language is a 2 or 3-letter language code in lowercase and the rest is optional. See Locale codes for more details.
--path <directory>	Path to a project (<directory> must contain a 'project.godot' file).
-u, --upwards	Scan folders upwards for 'project.godot' file.
--main-pack <file>	Path to a pack (.pck) file to load.
--render-thread <mode>	Render thread mode ('unsafe', 'safe', 'separate'). See Thread Model for more details.
--remote-fs <address>	Remote filesystem (<host/IP>[:<port>] address).
--remote-fs-password <password>	Password for remote filesystem.
--audio-driver <driver>	Audio driver. Use --help first to display the list of available drivers.
--display-driver <driver>	Display driver (and rendering driver). Use --help first to display the list of available drivers.
--rendering-method <renderer>	Renderer name. Requires driver support.
--rendering-driver <driver>	Rendering driver (depends on display driver). Use --help first to display the list of available drivers.
--gpu-index <device_index>	Use a specific GPU (run with --verbose to get available device list).
--text-driver <driver>	Text driver (Fonts, BiDi, shaping).
--tablet-driver <driver>	Pen tablet input driver.
--headless	Enable headless mode (--display-driver headless --audio-driver Dummy). Useful for servers and with --script.
--write-movie <file>	Run the engine in a way that a movie is written (usually with .avi or .png extension). --fixed-fps is forced when enabled, but can be used to change movie FPS. --disable-vsync can speed up movie writing but makes interaction more difficult. --quit-after can be used to specify the number of frames to write.

Display options

Command	Description
-f, --fullscreen	Request fullscreen mode.
-m, --maximized	Request a maximized window.
-w, --windowed	Request windowed mode.
-t, --always-on-top	Request an always-on-top window.
--resolution <W>x<H>	Request window resolution.
--position <X>,<Y>	Request window position.
--screen <N>	Request window screen.
--single-window	Use a single window (no separate subwindows).
--xr-mode <mode>	Select XR mode ('default', 'off', 'on').

Debug options

Command

Description