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 |
|
Display the list of command line options. |
|
Display the version string. |
|
Use verbose stdout mode. |
|
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 |
|
Start the editor instead of running the scene. |
|
Start the Project Manager, even if a project is auto-detected. |
|
Start the editor debug server ( |
|
Quit after the first iteration. |
|
Quit after the given number of iterations. Set to 0 to disable. |
|
Use a specific locale. |
|
Path to a project ( |
|
Scan folders upwards for 'project.godot' file. |
|
Path to a pack (.pck) file to load. |
|
Render thread mode ('unsafe', 'safe', 'separate'). See Thread Model for more details. |
|
Remote filesystem ( |
|
Password for remote filesystem. |
|
Audio driver. Use |
|
Display driver (and rendering driver). Use |
|
Renderer name. Requires driver support. |
|
Rendering driver (depends on display driver). Use |
|
Use a specific GPU (run with |
|
Text driver (Fonts, BiDi, shaping). |
|
Pen tablet input driver. |
|
Enable headless mode ( |
|
Run the engine in a way that a movie is written (usually with .avi or .png extension).
|
Display options
Command |
Description |
|
Request fullscreen mode. |
|
Request a maximized window. |
|
Request windowed mode. |
|
Request an always-on-top window. |
|
Request window resolution. |
|
Request window position. |
|
Request window screen. |
|
Use a single window (no separate subwindows). |
|
Select XR mode ('default', 'off', 'on'). |
Debug options
Command |
Description |