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Internal CLI Arguments

neu CLI wraps Neutralinojs's internal CLI arguments to provide a simple interface for developers. For example, the neu run command internally calls ./bin/neutralino-linux_x64 --load-dir-res --path=. --neu-dev-extension --neu-dev-auto-reload on Linux. You can build neu CLI, Node.js, and npm to build Neutralinojs apps. But, neu CLI offers a simple, fast, and easy tooling for application developers to create, manage, and bundle Neutralinojs apps.

Neutralinojs supports the following CLI arguments. Many internal CLI arguments help developers to override default configuration defined inside the neutralino.config.json file. If you use Neutralinojs as a part of your source files via child process API, you can use the following arguments to configure the application instance.

General​

--load-dir-res​

Notifies Neutralinojs server to fetch files from the resources directory. If this flag is not provided, Neutralinojs server will load resources from the resources.neu file.

tip

If Neutralinojs fails to load resources resources.neu, this flag is automatically enabled internally to find resources from the app directory. Therefore, you can double click on the binary instead of neu run while developing apps.

--config-file=<filename>​

Uses a custom configuration file instead of the default neutralino.config.json file for loading the app configuration JSON. This CLI option is helpful for setting a development-only configuration file (i.e., --config-file=neutralino-dev.config.json).

info

The neu build command won't typically include custom configuration files for the final application bundle — it only embeds the default neutralino.config.json file allowing you to store production app configuration.

--path=<path>​

Overrides the resources path with a relative path or absolute path. This will change the NL_PATH global variable.

--mode=<mode>​

Overrides the default mode. Accepted values are: window, browser, and cloud.

--neu-dev-auto-reload​

Listens to the neuDev_reloadApp event. When this CLI argument is provided, each modification done to the resources will automatically reload the application. The neu run command executes Neutralinojs with this flag by default.

--neu-dev- is a reserved CLI argument prefix for Neutralinojs process. Therefore, avoid adding custom arguments with --neu-dev- prefix. Feel free to use the --dev- prefix for your development-related CLI flags.

--neu-dev-extension​

Loads js.neutralino.devtools extension internally for development purposes. The neu CLI uses this CLI argument to establish an IPC with the application process. This option only works if application resources are loaded from a directory (won't work for end-users).

--url=<url>​

Overrides the URL on the application.

--document-root=<url>​

Overrides the document root of the static server.

--port=<port>​

Overrides the application port and will change the NL_PORT global variable. If 0 is given, Neutralino will use a random available port.

--logging-enabled=<true|false>​

Overrides the logging feature status.

--logging-write-to-log-file=<true|false>​

Overrides the log file feature status.

--export-auth-info=<true|false>​

Overrides auth details export setting.

--enable-extensions=<true|false>​

Overrides extensions feature's availability.

--enable-server=<true|false>​

Enables or disables the background server (Disables static file servering feature and native API messaging). If you load a remote URL to the webview, you can set this option to true.

--enable-native-api=<true|false>​

Overrides the primary native API execution permission.

--single-page-serve=<true|false>​

Overrides the single page serving option.

Window mode​

The following CLI arguments are used when the application runs with the window mode.

--window-title=<title>​

Overrides the window title.

--window-icon=<icon_path>​

Overrides the window icon.

--window-full-screen=<true|false>​

Overrides the window's initial full screen status.

--window-always-on-top=<true|false>​

Overrides the window's initial top-most mode.

--window-borderless=<true|false>​

Overrides the window's borderless mode.

--window-maximize=<true|false>​

Overrides the window's initial maximize status.

--window-hidden=<true|false>​

Overrides the window's initial visibility status.

--window-maximizable=<true|false>​

Overrides the window's initial maximizable status.

--window-width=<number>​

Overrides the window width.

--window-height=<number>​

Overrides the window height.

--window-min-width=<number>​

Overrides the window's minimum width.

--window-min-height=<number>​

Overrides the window's minimum height.

--window-max-width=<number>​

Overrides the window's maximum width.

--window-max-height=<number>​

Overrides the window's maximum height.

--window-x=<number>​

Overrides the window left (x) position.

--window-y=<number>​

Overrides the window top (y) position.

--window-center=<true|false>​

Overrides the window's initial center positioning setup.

--window-transparent=<true|false>​

Overrides the window transparency mode.

--window-resizable=<true|false>​

Overrides the window's initial resizability status.

--window-exit-process-on-close=<true|false>​

Overrides the close button's behavior.

--window-enable-inspector=<true|false>​

Automatically opens the developer tools window.

--window-use-saved-state=<true|false>​

Overrides the saved window state feature setting.

--window-extend-user-agent-with=<suffix>​

Overrides the custom user agent setting.

Chrome mode​

The following CLI arguments are used when the application runs with the chrome mode.

--chrome-width=<number>​

Chrome window's width.

--chrome-height=<number>​

Chrome window's height.

--chrome-args=<arg_list>​

Additional arguments for the Chrome process. Read more about chrome mode from here

tip

The right hand value is optional for the for boolean type CLI arguments. Therefore, you can use --window-full-screen instead of --window-full-screen=true. However, if you define window.fullScreen as true and you need to override it as false you have to use --window-full-screen=false.