---
title: "Open-CatProject"
description: "Open-CatProject — open a project for the session and return it."
url: "https://docs.justcat.it/reference/powershell-module/open-catproject/"
---
# Open-CatProject

## Synopsis

```powershell
Open-CatProject [[-Path] <string>] [[-LoggingLevel] <string>] [[-LoggingPath] <string>]
```

## Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Position | Default | Meaning |
|-----------|------|----------|---------|---------|
| `-Path` | string | 0 | current location | A `.cat.yaml` file, or a directory with exactly one `*.cat.yaml`; relative to the current location. Empty or omitted: the current location. |
| `-LoggingLevel` | string | 1 | `None` | `None` · `Fatal` · `Error` · `Warning` · `Information` · `Debug` · `Verbose`. Fixed for the session it creates. |
| `-LoggingPath` | string | 2 | `<project folder>\Logs\cat-log.log` | Log file, when logging is on. |

## What it does

Resolves the path, creates a fresh session (disposing the previous one — so every open signs in again and starts with an empty result history), runs the sign-in and plan check, and opens the project: reads the file, loads data sources and tests from every list, generates metadata-driven tests. The project becomes *the* open project that `Get-Cat*`, `Show-CatProject`, `Invoke-CatTest` and `Invoke-CatCommand` work with. Opening another project replaces it.

## Output

The `Project` object — the same `Get-CatProject` returns: `DataSources`, `Tests`, `TestLists`, `DataSourceLists`, `Queries`, `Outputs`, `Threads`, `ProjectPathInfo`, … Assign it or discard it (`$null = Open-CatProject`); the project is open either way.

## Errors

Refusals from the sign-in and plan check are terminating errors with the `CatPortal.*` ids listed on the [Introduction](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/powershell-module/introduction/ "Introduction") page. `The path does not exist: …` (terminating, checked before anything else); `The current directory does not contain any *.cat.yaml file…` / `You provided a directory that contains N *.cat.yaml files…`; `PlanLimitExceeded` when the project is over a per-project cap of the plan (terminating). Any other reason the project cannot be opened — a YAML error, an unreachable test list — is a **non-terminating** error: the message is printed, `$?` is `$false`, and no project is open.

## Examples

```powershell
# the project in the current directory
Open-CatProject

# a specific project, with CAT narrating what it loads
$p = Open-CatProject -Path 'D:\Testing\DwhTests.cat.yaml' -LoggingLevel Information
$p.Tests.Count

# open, run twice, close
Open-CatProject 'D:\Testing\DwhTests.cat.yaml'
$smoke = Invoke-CatTest -IncludeTag Smoke
$all   = Invoke-CatTest
Close-CatProject
```

## Related

- [Introduction](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/powershell-module/introduction/ "Introduction") — session model, logging, errors, sign-in.
- [`Invoke-CatProject`](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/powershell-module/invoke-catproject/ "Invoke-CatProject") — open and run in one call.
- [`Get-CatProject`](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/powershell-module/get-catproject/ "Get-CatProject") · [`Show-CatProject`](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/powershell-module/show-catproject/ "Show-CatProject") · [`Invoke-CatTest`](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/powershell-module/invoke-cattest/ "Invoke-CatTest") · [`Close-CatProject`](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/powershell-module/close-catproject/ "Close-CatProject").