Windows Terminal command line arguments (2023)

You can usewt.exeto open a new instance of Windows Terminal from the command line. You can also use the execution aliasweightinstead of this.

command line syntax

DieweightThe command line accepts two types of values:optionsandcommands.optionsare a list of flags and other parameters that can control the behavior ofweightcommand line as a whole.commandsSpecify the action or a semicolon-separated list of actions to implement. If no command is specified, the command is assumed to benew windowBy default.

wt [options] [command ; ]

To display a help message with the available command line arguments, type:wt-h,wt --help,wt -?, orww /?.

options and commands

Below is the full list of supported commands and options for theweightcommand line.

New tabcommand

Split disccommand

focus tabcommand

Move-Focuscommand

Examples of command line arguments

The commands may vary slightly depending on the command line used.

Passing an argument to the standard shell

Invoke to launch an instance of Windows Terminal and run a commandwt.exefollowed by your command.

Here's an example of calling Windows Terminal to pass aRingCommand argument to echo an IP address:

wt ping on learn.microsoft.com

Here is an example of calling Windows Terminal to open a new tab with a PowerShell command line and confirm the callstart serviceCommand and open another new tab with Windows command prompt open/kDirectory:

wt new-tab PowerShell -c Start-Dienst ; new-tab cmd /k dir

Target a specific window

Below are examples of how to target specific windows using--window,-wPossibility.

// Open a new tab with the default profile in the current window wt -w 0 nt// Open a new tab in a new window with the default profile wt -w -1 nt// Open a new tab in the first created terminal window with the default profile wt -w 1 nt// In the terminal window, open a new tab called foo with the default profile. If foo doesn't exist, create a new window named foo.wt -w foo nt

Open a new profile instance

In this case, to open a new terminal instance, the command will open the profile named "Ubuntu-18.04", type:

wt -p "Free-18.04"

Die-pFlag is used to specify the Windows Terminal profile to open. Replace "Ubuntu-18.04" with the name of any terminal profile you have installed. This always opens a new window. Windows Terminal is not yet able to open new tabs or panes in an existing instance.

Target a directory

To specify the folder to use as the console startup directory, in this case the d:\ directory, type:

wt -d d:\

Multiple tabs

Type the following to open a new multi-tabbed terminal instance:

weight ; ;

Type the following to open a new terminal instance with multiple tabs, in this case a Command Prompt profile and a PowerShell profile:

wt -p "command prompt" ; new-tab -p "Windows PowerShell"

Multiple slices

To open a new terminal instance with a tab with three panes running a Command Prompt profile, a PowerShell profile, and your default profile with a WSL command line, type:

wt -p "command prompt" ; split-pane -p "Windows PowerShell" ; split-pane -H wsl.exe

Die-Hflag (or--horizontal) indicates that the panes should be split horizontally. the-Vflag (or--vertical) indicates that the panes should be split vertically.

Multiple tabs and areas

Dienew tabandsplit discCommands can be sequenced to get multiple tabs, each with split windows. To open a new terminal instance with two tabs, each with two windows running a command prompt and a WSL command line, type the following, with each tab in a different directory:

wt -p "command prompt" ; split-pane -V wsl.exe ; new-tab -d c:\ ; split-pane -H -d c:\wsl.exe

area title

To open a new terminal instance with custom titles for each terminal pane, use the--TitleDispute. To set the title of each pane when opening multiple tabs, type:

wt --title tabname1 ; new-tab -p "Ubuntu-18.04" --title tabname2

Panels on the same tab can have different titles that affect the tab title depending on which panel has focus. To name independent areas, you can set the title after dividing the areas by typing:

wt --title pane1 ; split-pane -p "prompt" --title pane2

Use application title

To open a new terminal instance that allows applications inside it to set the tab title by sending title change messages, use the--useApplicationTitleFlag. To suppress these messages, use the--suppressApplicationTitleFlag. If none of these flags are provided, the behavior is inherited from the profile settings. To open a titled tabtab namewhich will not be overwritten by the application, type:

wt --title Registerkartenname --suppressApplicationTitle

tab color

To open a new terminal instance with custom tab colors, use the--tab colorDispute. This argument overrides the value defined in the profile, but can also be overridden with the tab color picker. The following example creates a new terminal with two different colored tabs:

wt --tabColor #009999 ; new-tab --tabColor #f59218

When--tab coloris set for a tab, it is mapped to the first pane of that tab. Therefore, in a multi-pane tab, the color is applied only when the first pane has focus. To set the tab color for additional panels, you need to add the--tab colorparameters forsplit discalso subcommand. The following example creates a tab with two panes, with the tab colors set for each pane:

wt new-tab --tabColor '#009999' `; split window --tabColor '#f59218'

color scheme

To open a new terminal instance with a specific color scheme (instead of thecolor schemeset in profile), use the--Color schemeDispute. This argument overrides the value defined in the profile.

wt --colorScheme Vintage ; split-pane --colorScheme "Tango Light"

tab focus

To open a new terminal instance with a specific tab in focus, use the-tflag (or--Goal) along with the tab index number. How to open your default profile on the first tab and the "Ubuntu-18.04" profile on the second tab (-t 1), enter:

weight ; new-tab -p "Ubuntu-18.04" ; Focus tab -t 1

Examples of multiple PowerShell commands

Windows Terminal uses the semicolon character;as a delimiter to separate commands in theweightcommand line. Unfortunately, PowerShell uses that too;as a command separator. To get around this, you can use the following tricks to run multipleweightCommands from PowerShell. All of the following examples create a new terminal window with three panes - one with Command Prompt, one with PowerShell, and the last with WSL.

The following examples do not useBeginningto run the command line. Instead, there are two other methods to bypass the command line:

• Just escape the semicolons so thatPower Shellignore them and forward them directlyweight.
• Use--%, so PowerShell treats the rest of the command line as arguments to the application.

wt new-tab "cmd" `; split-pane -p "Windows PowerShell" `; split-pane -H wsl.exe

wt --% new-tab cmd ; split-pane -p "Windows PowerShell" ; split-pane -H wsl.exe

In both examples, the newly created Windows terminal window creates the window by correctly parsing all command line arguments provided.

However, these methods areNotis currently recommended because PowerShell waits for the newly created terminal window to close before returning control to PowerShell. By default, PowerShell always waits for Windows Store applications (like Windows Terminal) to close before returning to the command prompt. Note that this is different from the behavior of the command prompt, which immediately returns to the command prompt.