Editora 0.12.1 docs. You are reading an archived version, kept so links from that release keep working. Read the 0.12.3 docs →

Command line

Editora takes a few command-line arguments. With the native installers the launcher binary accepts them too; from source, pass them after javafx:run or the jar.

Flags

--single-window opens exactly one window instead of restoring every window that was open at last quit: bare, it opens the no-project window; with a name (--single-window=MyProject), that project’s window (falling back to no-project if no project matches). It’s session-only, so your saved multi-window layout is untouched and the next normal launch restores everything.

--no-session skips the saved session’s files entirely and opens only what you named on the command line. It’s for launching from a file manager or a script, where restoring the last session is pure cost — every restored file is a buffer to load and highlight and, once shown, a language server to run, for files you didn’t ask to see. Also session-only: your saved tabs are left as they were rather than replaced by whatever you happened to open.

Opening files

Pass one or more file targets, each optionally with a line and column:

editora path/to/file.txt
editora src/Main.java:42
editora notes.md:10:5

Each target opens in its own focused tab and jumps to the given position. File targets, --project, and --new-file combine, so you can open a project and jump into a file in one command.

One editor, not two

If Editora is already running, a launch that just opens files hands them to the running editor and exits rather than starting a second one. The files open in the focused window, and a focus mode you asked for (--expert, say) is applied to it — so a desktop entry like “Editora Expert Mode” still means Expert Mode.

This is what you want when opening a file from a file manager. On Linux and Windows a file manager passes the path as a command-line argument, which by definition starts a new process, so clicking a file used to pay a full cold start and leave a second editor resident. (macOS never had the problem — Finder delivers an event to the running app — and the handoff routes into that same code path.)

It is deliberately narrow. Only a launch that is purely “open these files” is handed over; these always get their own editor:

• --project, --new-file, --config-dir and --dev, which shape how a process starts and have no honest meaning inside a window that’s already running
• a launch with no files at all
• anything passing --new-instance

An instance is scoped to its config directory, so a --dev launch can never hand off to your real editor, and two --config-dir sessions stay independent. If the handoff fails for any reason, the launch simply starts its own editor.

Examples

# A throwaway instance that won't touch your real config
editora --dev

# Open a folder as a project and jump to a line
editora --project ~/code/app src/main/java/App.java:88

# Start a quick scratch buffer in Zen mode
editora --new-file=scratch.md --zen

# Open a file in a second editor rather than the running one
editora --new-instance notes.md

# What a desktop "Open With" entry passes: just these files, no saved session
editora --expert --single-window --no-session README.md

--zen and --simple only affect the current session; they don’t change your saved preferences. The config-folder flags are documented in Configuration.