Command line

flatty -h prints the lot. Nothing here is needed for ordinary use — these are for build scripts, for reproducing a bug report, and for opening the app already pointed at something.

Opening something

Flag	Does
`-open <path>`	open a project: its folder, or its `project.fdraw`
`-project <dir>`	the project folder to work in; created by `-save` if it is not one yet
`-name "Nice Name"`	the project’s name, which also sets the export filenames
`-palette <file>`	import a palette file at startup
`-tool <name>`	put a tool in hand: `brush`, `bucket`, `texture`, `glyph`, `flextrude`, `shapes` or `generator`
`-no-launcher`	skip the startup chooser
`-show-launcher`	force it, even when something else would have skipped it

Running headless

Flag	Does
`-save`	write the project file and exit
`-export`	write `exports/` and `exports/latest/`, then exit

flatty -project ./sprites/cloud -demo cloud -save   # create it and write the project file
flatty -open ./sprites/cloud -export                # write the exports

Both need somewhere to write, so they refuse to run without -project or -open rather than inventing a path. Deriving one from a root plus the title is what used to move somebody’s work when they renamed a project.

A scripted run writes no settings. -project, -save, -export and -screenshot all suppress config writes, so a run told what to work on cannot rewrite your history, your workspaces or your preferences as a side effect. The Settings pane says Not saving when that is in force.

The window

Flag	Does
`-width N` / `-height N`	window size; 0 fills the monitor
`-layout <id>`	start with a built-in layout instead of the saved workspaces
`-workspaces N`	start with N workspaces, showing an empty one
`-theme <id>`	interface theme for this run only, by id
`-lang <code>`	interface language for this run only: `en`, `pl`, `es`, `de`, `pt`

Layout ids are default, full, deck, palette, settings and rico-full. They are ids rather than the names the pane shows — default is Simple, full is Claudy, rico-full is Rico — because an id has to keep working after a layout is renamed. No flag restores your session; a name that is not a built-in stops the run rather than quietly giving you your own workspaces back.

Theme ids are organic, night-wave, and the five moods — night-wave-jungle, night-wave-kapuccino, night-wave-soft, night-wave-soft-jungle and night-wave-soft-kapuccino — plus any of your own. A name that is not one stops the run and prints the list.

-theme and -lang change nothing on disk: they are for this run only.

Opening a panel at startup

Each of these does exactly what a click somewhere in the interface does. They exist so a panel can be photographed or reproduced without a hand on the mouse.

Flag	Opens
`-show-help`	the app’s help card
`-show-setup`	the setup panel
`-show-commands`	the command palette
`-show-knife`	the Swiss Army Knife, pinned open
`-show-picker`	the project chooser
`-show-new-project`	the New Project panel
`-show-quit`	the quit dialog
`-show-unsaved`	the unsaved-changes dialog
`-show-wheel`	the colour wheel
`-show-layouts`	the Layouts pane
`-show-media`	the Media pane
`-show-vector`	the Vector pane
`-show-recorder`	the Recorder pane
`-show-glyphs`	the Glyphs pane, with the stamp in hand
`-show-keys`	the Keys pane
`-show-texture-picker`	the file browser in file mode
`-edit-image <file>`	the image editor, on its way to the media library
`-place-image <file>`	the image editor, on its way onto the canvas
`-popout <name>`	pop a pane out over the workspace — any pane’s written name: `settings`, `keys`, `theme`, `view3d`, `vector`, `export`, `recorder`, …
`-record`	start a recording at once and quit when it is written. Needs `-project` or `-open`, and will not film the canvas — that one waits for somebody to draw. Filming the window is allowed: it ends on its own at the cap on its card

Screenshots and test artwork

Flag	Does
`-screenshot <file>`	render N frames, write a PNG, exit
`-frames N`	how many frames first. Default 30
`-demo <name>`	seed test artwork
`-show-redraw`	tint each pane on the frame it is redrawn, to see which are being kept

-demo takes cloud, layers, mirror, clip, lasso, palettes, deck, deckback, decksolo and texture.

Two things about -screenshot are worth knowing, because both look like bugs:

It writes relative to the current directory, not to where you thought you asked. An absolute path fails.
A low -frames count barely advances an animation. The first frames are not yet paced by the display, so -frames 30 can be hundredths of a second of animated time — and anything that moves looks as if it is not drawing at all. Use 60 or more before concluding anything is broken.

-screenshot also switches tooltips and hover off for the run, because a scripted run has no hand on the pointer and the pointer sits wherever the compositor left it.