Edit project settings

project.godot is an INI-style file with a few shapes that resist line editing: input actions are brace blocks containing serialized Object(...) values, autoloads carry a leading asterisk for singletons, and section order matters. godot-cli parses the file and writes it back rather than matching patterns over lines.

Look at what is there

godot-cli project show --project-root . --json

{
  "project_name": "Demo",
  "main_scene": "res://main.tscn",
  "input_action_count": 4,
  "autoload_count": 1,
  "enabled_plugin_count": 0
}

Scalar settings

godot-cli project settings set --project-root . \
  --section application --key run/main_scene --value res://main.tscn

godot-cli project settings list --project-root . --json
godot-cli project settings get --project-root . --section application --key config/name --json

Strings are quoted for you. Pass --raw when the value is already Godot-formatted, such as a Vector2(...) or a boolean.

project settings validate --project-root . checks that res:// paths in settings point at files that exist, which catches a main scene that was renamed.

Input map

Input actions are the fiddliest part of the file, so they are described as an intent and applied as a unit:

{
  "actions": [
    {
      "name": "move_left",
      "events": [
        { "type": "key", "keycode": "A", "physical": true },
        { "type": "joypad_motion", "axis": "left_x", "axis_value": -1.0 }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

godot-cli project input apply --project-root . --intent input.json --json

applied 4 input action(s) (4 added, 0 replaced)

What lands in the file is the full serialized event Godot expects:

[input]
move_left={
"deadzone": 0.5,
"events": [Object(InputEventKey,"resource_local_to_scene":false,"resource_name":"","device":-1,...,"physical_keycode":65,...)]
}

Applying the same intent twice replaces each action by name instead of appending a second copy, so re-running after an edit is safe. A ready-made WASD intent ships at $GODOT_CLI_HOME/examples/intents/wasd_movement.json.

Every event type Godot has

Names are matched without case, and each type also takes the raw Godot number ("keycode": 4194309, "button": 15) for anything not named here.

A key or mouse_button event takes modifier flags, so a chord is one event:

{ "type": "key", "keycode": "S", "physical": false, "ctrl": true }

An event can also name a device, which is what separates two players sharing a binding. -1 is Godot's All Devices and the default:

{ "name": "player2_jump", "events": [
  { "type": "joypad_button", "button": "a", "device": 1 },
  { "type": "key", "keycode": "space" }
] }

project input apply --help lists every accepted name, and an unknown one comes back with the whole set in details.hint rather than a bare failure.

Autoloads

{ "autoloads": [ { "name": "GameState", "path": "res://scripts/game_state.gd", "singleton": true } ] }

godot-cli project autoload apply --project-root . --intent autoload.json --json
godot-cli project autoload validate --project-root . --json

[autoload]
GameState="*res://scripts/game_state.gd"

The asterisk is how Godot marks a singleton. Autoloads merge by name; pass replace_all in the intent when the list should be exactly what you supplied.

Editor plugins

godot-cli project plugins list --project-root . --json
godot-cli project plugins enable --project-root . --plugin my_addon
godot-cli project plugins disable --project-root . --plugin old_plugin
godot-cli project plugins validate --project-root . --json

This toggles plugins that already exist at addons/<name>/plugin.cfg. godot-cli does not install from the Asset Library.

Rendering and physics

Both take short aliases in place of the raw setting keys:

godot-cli project rendering list --project-root . --json
godot-cli project rendering apply --project-root . --intent rendering_forward_plus.json --json
godot-cli project physics apply --project-root . --intent physics_jolt.json --json

project rendering validate and project physics validate check the values against the ones Godot accepts, so a typo in a driver name fails before you next open the project.

One intent for everything

project apply takes a single document containing any combination of the sections above and writes them in one pass:

{
  "settings": { "application": { "run/main_scene": "res://main.tscn" } },
  "input": { "actions": [ ... ] },
  "autoload": { "autoloads": [ ... ] },
  "rendering": { "method": "forward_plus" }
}

godot-cli project apply --project-root . --intent bootstrap.json --json

$GODOT_CLI_HOME/examples/intents/project_bootstrap.json is a working example. Every command here takes --dry-run to apply in memory and report what would change.

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