Command-line Interface

Katana's launch behavior and mode of operation can be controlled by passing command-line arguments.

Global Arguments

These arguments can be passed regardless of the selected launch mode, see Launch Modes.

Argument Description
-h, --help Displays a list of command-line arguments.
--asset ASSETID Loads the Katana project with the given asset ID or path.
--ocio PATH Uses the OpenColorIO configuration file at the given path.
--profile Runs Katana in profiling mode. See Op Cook Profiling.
--force-profile Runs Katana in profiling mode and start profiling immediately.
--profiling-dir DIR Sets the directory where profiling files, if any, are written.
-V, --verbose The level of verbosity of logging informational messages. Defaults to 1. Set to 0 to suppress most informational messages.

Launch Modes

Katana normally operates in interactive (GUI) mode. Katana can be launched in a specific launch mode by using one of the following command-line arguments.

Mode Name Argument Description

Interactive

No flags

Runs Katana with the standard GUI.

Batch

--batch

Runs Katana without a GUI to render the output of a specific node in the Node Graph. Batch mode supports further command-line arguments, see Batch Mode for more information.

Script

--script PATH

Runs Katana without a GUI, and executes the specified Python script at the given path.

Shell

--shell

Runs Katana without a GUI, and allows Python commands to be run interactively.