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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

General options

Run options

Display options

Debug options

Note

Debug options are only available in the editor and debug export templates (they require debug or release_debug build targets, see Target for more details).

Standalone tools

Path

It is recommended that your Godot editor binary be in your PATH environment variable, so it can be executed easily from any place by typing godot. You can do so on Linux by placing the Godot binary in /usr/local/bin and making sure it is called godot (case-sensitive).

Setting the project path

Depending on where your Godot binary is located and what your current working directory is, you may need to set the path to your project for any of the following commands to work correctly.

This can be done by giving the path to the project.godot file of your project as either the first argument, like this:

godot path_to_your_project/project.godot [other] [commands] [and] [args]

Or by using the --path argument:

godot --path path_to_your_project [other] [commands] [and] [args]

For example, the full command for exporting your game (as explained below) might look like this:

godot --headless --path path_to_your_project --export-release my_export_preset_name game.exe

Creating a project

Creating a project from the command line can be done by navigating the shell to the desired place and making a project.godot file.

mkdir newgame
cd newgame
touch project.godot

The project can now be opened with Godot.

Running the editor

Running the editor is done by executing Godot with the -e flag. This must be done from within the project directory or a subdirectory, otherwise the command is ignored and the Project Manager appears.

godot -e

If a scene has been created and saved, it can be edited later by running the same code with that scene as argument.

godot -e scene.tscn

Erasing a scene

Godot is friends with your filesystem and will not create extra metadata files. Use rm to erase a scene file. Make sure nothing references that scene. Otherwise, an error will be thrown upon opening the project.

rm scene.tscn

Running the game

To run the game, simply execute Godot within the project directory or subdirectory.

godot

When a specific scene needs to be tested, pass that scene to the command line.

godot scene.tscn

Debugging

Catching errors in the command line can be a difficult task because they scroll quickly. For this, a command line debugger is provided by adding -d. It works for running either the game or a single scene.

godot -d

godot -d scene.tscn

Exporting

Exporting the project from the command line is also supported. This is especially useful for continuous integration setups.

Note

Using the --headless command line argument is required on platforms that do not have GPU access (such as continuous integration). On platforms with GPU access, --headless prevents a window from spawning while the project is exporting.

# `godot` must be a Godot editor binary, not an export template.
# Also, export templates must be installed for the editor
# (or a valid custom export template must be defined in the export preset).
godot --headless --export-release "Linux/X11" /var/builds/project
godot --headless --export-release Android /var/builds/project.apk

The preset name must match the name of an export preset defined in the project’s export_presets.cfg file. If the preset name contains spaces or special characters (such as “Windows Desktop”), it must be surrounded with quotes.

To export a debug version of the game, use the --export-debug switch instead of --export-release. Their parameters and usage are the same.

To export only a PCK file, use the --export-pack option followed by the preset name and output path, with the file extension, instead of --export-release or --export-debug. The output path extension determines the package’s format, either PCK or ZIP.

Warning

When specifying a relative path as the path for --export-release, --export-debug or --export-pack, the path will be relative to the directory containing the project.godot file, not relative to the current working directory.

Running a script

It is possible to run a .gd script from the command line. This feature is especially useful in large projects, e.g. for batch conversion of assets or custom import/export.

The script must inherit from SceneTree or MainLoop.

Here is an example sayhello.gd, showing how it works:

#!/usr/bin/env -S godot -s
extends SceneTree
func _init():
    print("Hello!")
    quit()

And how to run it:

# Prints "Hello!" to standard output.
godot -s sayhello.gd

If no project.godot exists at the path, current path is assumed to be the current working directory (unless --path is specified).

The first line of sayhello.gd above is commonly referred to as a shebang. If the Godot binary is in your PATH as godot, it allows you to run the script as follows in modern Linux distributions, as well as macOS:

# Mark script as executable.
chmod +x sayhello.gd
# Prints "Hello!" to standard output.
./sayhello.gd

If the above doesn’t work in your current version of Linux or macOS, you can always have the shebang run Godot straight from where it is located as follows:

#!/usr/bin/godot -s