---
title: "open"
description: "catcli open — open a project for an interactive session: run, rerun, step through failed tests."
url: "https://docs.justcat.it/reference/cat-cli/open/"
---
# open


## Synopsis

```
catcli open [-p <path>] [-g] [-q]
```

## Options

| Short | Long | Value | Meaning |
|-------|------|-------|---------|
| `-p` | `--project` | path | Project file, or a directory with exactly one `*.cat.yaml`. Default: the current directory. |
| `-g` | `--progress` | | Accepted for uniformity with `run` and `show`; `open` always shows progress bars while the project loads. |
| `-q` | `--quiet` | | Hide the "working offline" notice. |

`open` has no `--loggingLevel`; the session runs without logging.

## What it does

Opens the project, then prompts for a command and keeps prompting until `exit`:

```
Command to execute (run, rerun, result, exit):
```

| Command | Effect |
|---------|--------|
| `run` | Runs **all** tests of the open project (no filters) and writes the project's outputs. The project file is not re-read. |
| `rerun` | Re-reads the project file — picking up edits to tests, data sources and lists — and then runs all tests. The sign-in and plan check runs again. |
| `result` | Shows the next test that did not pass (`Failed`, `Error` or `Inconclusive`): its full name and description, the message, and the query of each data source side by side. Repeating `result` steps to the next one; after the last it wraps around to the first and says so. Before any `run` it says there are no results; when every test passed it says so. |
| `exit` | Closes the project and ends the session. |

Commands are not case-sensitive; anything else prints `Unknown command` and prompts again. The typical loop is `run` → `result`, `result`, … → fix the data or the test → `rerun`.

## Output

`run` and `rerun` print the same per-test lines, breakdown bar and totals as [`run`](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/cat-cli/run/#output "run — Output"). `result` prints one test per call as a set of panels:

```
Showing non-passed test # 1 / 3:
╭─ [SourceDataTests].[2].[Check if the table DIM.DESTINATIONS is not empty.] ─╮
│ The destinations dimension must never be empty after the nightly load.     │
╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ The set is empty; expected at least one row.                               │
╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭─ AERO_PROD ─────────────────────────────╮╭──────────────────────────────────╮
│ SELECT * FROM DIM.DESTINATIONS          ││                                  │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────╯╰──────────────────────────────────╯
```

## Exit code

`0` after `exit`. `1` when the project could not be opened. `2`–`7` from the sign-in and plan check, at start or at `rerun` — see [Exit codes](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/cat-cli/introduction/#exit-codes "Exit codes").

## Examples

```
# the project in the current directory
catcli open

# a specific project
catcli open -p "D:\MyProjects\Aero.cat.yaml"
```

## Related

- [Introduction](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/cat-cli/introduction/ "Introduction") — conventions, sign-in, exit codes.
- [`run`](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/cat-cli/run/ "run") — one-shot run with filters, for scripts and pipelines.
- [Tests — properties](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/tests/properties/ "Test properties") — `Description` is what `result` shows under the name; fill it in.