Command line and environment

How to start Claudette from a terminal, the environment variables Claudette reads, and what Claudette passes to the programs it starts.

The command line

Option	What it does
`--folder <path>`	Opens a tab in that folder on startup. A relative path is from where you ran the command, also when a Claudette that’s already running takes it. The jump list, File → Open Recent and the Dock menu use it too.
`--login`	How the login entry starts Claudette: minimized, without taking focus. A Claudette that’s already running ignores it. You don’t need to type it. See Starting at login.

Claudette has two other options, --restore and --source-build, which it passes itself when it restarts into an update or a new build. Don’t use them.

One Claudette at a time. Starting Claudette while it’s running hands the options to the running one, which comes to the front, and opens a tab if you gave a folder. A copy started with its own CLAUDETTE_HOME counts as a separate Claudette.

To run from a checkout: dotnet run --project src/Claudette.App -- --folder <path>. See Running from source.

Claudette’s variables

Variable	What it does
`CLAUDETTE_HOME`	A folder where Claudette keeps all its settings and data, instead of your profile’s. It’s for trying things without touching your real tabs. A Claudette started with it also leaves the login entry alone, and Start Claudette when I log in is disabled.
`CLAUDETTE_RUN_IN_PLACE`	Set to `1`, a source build runs from its build folder instead of from a copy. A debugger attached does the same. See Running from source.
`CLAUDETTE_UNFOCUSED`	Set to `1`, Claudette’s windows never take the focus from the window you’re in, and on Windows they stay behind your windows. The screenshot scripts in `tools/Claudette.Demo` use it.
`CLAUDETTE_AUTOMATION_PIPE`	The name of a pipe Claudette takes commands on: the screenshot scripts in `tools/Claudette.Demo` click, type and press keys in it this way, without the mouse or the keyboard. Only your own programs can connect.

Claude Code’s variables

Claudette starts every claude with your environment (on macOS and Linux with your login shell’s variables merged in, below), after removing the variables Claude Code sets for the programs it starts, such as CLAUDECODE and CLAUDE_CODE_CHILD_SESSION. Left in, they’d make a claude started from a terminal inside a Claude Code session behave as a child session. Claudette removes exactly those, and nothing by prefix: your own CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR, CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK and the rest pass through to claude as your configuration. See How Claudette uses Claude Code.

Claude Code’s own list of variables says what each one does. These are the ones that change what Claudette shows:

Variable	What Claudette does
`CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR`	Passes through, so the tab’s Claude Code uses that configuration folder.
`ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL`	Passes through. The Claude app isn’t available when Claude is reached at another address, and connecting says why. See The Claude app.
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`, `ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN`	Pass through to the Default account’s tabs. A key or token also means the Claude app isn’t available.
`CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK` and the other cloud provider switches	Pass through. Claude through a cloud provider can’t use the Claude app.
`CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC`	Passes through. Claude Code then makes no title for the session, so the tab keeps its folder’s name.
`DISABLE_UPDATES`, `DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER`	Pass through. They turn Claude Code’s own updates off. See Claude Code’s updates.
`CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_SUBAGENT_SPAWN_DEPTH`	Passes through. It limits how deeply subagents nest (three layers by default), so the agent map can be shallower. See The agent map.

Claudette also sets some variables itself on every claude it starts:

Variable	Why
`CLAUDE_CLIENT_PRESENCE_FILE`	Names a file that exists only while Claudette’s window is in front. Claude Code skips pushes to your phone while it exists, so they reach you only when you’re away from Claudette. See The Claude app.
`CLAUDE_CODE_STARTUP_FAILURE_RESULTS`	Makes a start that Claude Code refuses say why, so the tab can tell you in words. See A tab that won’t start.
`CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_TODO_TOOLS`	Set while Settings → Claude Code → Give Claude a task list is on, so newer models make a task list too.

Keys and accounts

A tab on an API-key account starts without ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN, which would otherwise win over the account’s key. The key itself never goes in the environment: Claude Code gets it from a small helper Claudette runs.

The prompt cache

To say how long the prompt cache lasts, Claudette reads CLAUDE_CODE_PROMPT_CACHE_TTL, ENABLE_PROMPT_CACHING_1H, FORCE_PROMPT_CACHING_5M, DISABLE_PROMPT_CACHING and the per-model DISABLE_PROMPT_CACHING_… variables, both from the environment and from the env of Claude Code’s settings files. See The prompt cache.

What project actions get

Actions that run in each new worktree get two more variables, so a command can copy a file from the main checkout:

Variable	Value
`CLAUDETTE_WORKTREE`	The new worktree’s folder.
`CLAUDETTE_MAIN_CHECKOUT`	The main checkout’s folder.

See Actions and links.

An app started from the Dock, Finder or a desktop launcher gets a minimal environment: on macOS its PATH is only the system’s. Homebrew, nvm and the like are usually set in your shell’s startup files. So on macOS and Linux, Claudette reads your login shell’s environment once, in the background, and gives it to claude and to the programs it starts for you: git, p4, diff tools and project tools. It’s the same PATH as a terminal’s. Windows apps get your full environment, so Windows never needs it.

When. Settings → Claude Code → Use my login shell’s environment, on by default, on macOS and Linux, when Claudette wasn’t started from a terminal. Started from a terminal, it already has that shell’s environment.
Which shell. Your $SHELL, or zsh on macOS and bash on Linux, run as an interactive login shell. bash, zsh, sh, dash, ksh, mksh, yash, fish, tcsh and csh work. Others, such as nushell, xonsh and PowerShell, aren’t run, and Diagnostics says so.
If it fails. It gets 10 seconds. On a timeout or a failure Claudette carries on with its own environment.
CLAUDETTE_RESOLVING_ENVIRONMENT. It’s set to 1 while the shell runs, so a startup file can skip slow or interactive setup:
```
if [ -z "$CLAUDETTE_RESOLVING_ENVIRONMENT" ]; then
  # slow or interactive setup, such as a prompt theme
fi
```
What it doesn’t change. Claudette’s own CLAUDETTE_* variables always come from Claudette’s environment, and Claude Code’s session variables are never taken from the shell.
Checking it. Settings → Advanced → Diagnostics says whether it was used, which shell, how long it took and the names of the variables it added or changed, never their values.

If Claude can’t find a program, see Claude can’t find a program.