Analytica Command Line

The desktop Analytica.exe process is launched with a command line having the format:

Analytica.exe [options] [filename]

The brackets mean that these are optional. When filename has one or more spaces, you need to put double quotes around the filename. Or, you can put double quotes around the filename even if it doesn't have spaces. The filename will usually have the extension *.ana. When no filename is specified, Analytica launches to the intro screen. When a filename is specified, it loads that model file.

Options

Each option can be prefixed either with a forward slash, /, or with a minus, -. Option values appear after a colon. There can be no spaces within the option or its value. When an option value contains a space, the option value must be quoted using double quotes.

• /rlmDiag:filename: Writes diagnostic information about licenses to filename. This is very useful if you are encountering problems with a license that you believe has been activated, but is not working. After launching Analytica with this option, exit Analytica and either review the log file in a text editor, or email the diagnostic file to [email protected] for assistance. The diagnostic file logs the information about licenses that it finds on your computer, and hence is very useful for debugging license problems.

  Example usage: Analytica.exe /rlmDiag:"c:\Temp\rlmDiag.log"

• /roam:days: Specifies the number of days to roam a floating license. Or, if days is -1, it releases a roamed license. See License Roaming.

  Example usage: Analytica.exe /roam:7

• /lic:licenseName: Uses the specified license name without changing which license is selected by default. The license must already be activated (i.e., the license must be in your C:\ProgramData\Lumina\Licenses folder).

  Example: Analytica.exe /lic:analytica_optimizer_761_2

• /rlm:server: Specifies the server name (or port@serverName) that is running a Reprise License Manager with the desired centrally managed (e.g., floating) license.

• /eval:expression: (new to Analytica 6.0). Specifies an Analytica expression that is evaluated immediately after the model file that is specified on the command line finishes loading. The evaluating occurs after any proactively evaluated variables or buttons in the model. It does not dirty the model. The expression can include global variable assignments, and button identifiers. You will almost certainly want to include double quotes around the expression, and you need to escape any interior quotes by proceeding the quote with a backslash. The parameter is ignored if filename is not specified on the command line. See Running a model in a command line workflow.

• Example usage: Analytica.exe /eval:"Claimant=\"JDoe\";Run_Batch;Exit" "Claim analysis.ana"

  In this example, Claimant is the identifier of an input variable in the model and Run_batch and Exit are names of a buttons in the model.

• /comment:text: (new to Analytica 6.0) The text is a comment that is ignored by Analytica. In one example usage, ACP3 adds a comment to each spawned processes to differentiate them in task manager.

• /NoSplash: (new to Analytica 6.0) Don't show the splash screen at startup (which normally displays for 3 seconds).

• /mcp:«port»: (new to Analytica 7.0) Enable Analytica as an MCP server (a protocol that allows A.I. language models to call functions in your model). UDFs that contain @mcpTool in their description are exposed as functions that the external A.I. client can call.

• /lang:«code» (new to Analytica 7.1) Specifies the User Interface language for Analytica (for menus, dialogs, error messages, built-in function descriptions, etc.). «code» is a language code such as 'en' (for English), 'es' (for Spanish), etc. The language is only used when the resource files exist for that language in

  «Analytica install folder»\Resources\«code»\

  The command line overrides the registry setting Language (if present) in the hive

  HKCU\Software\Lumina Decision Systems\Analytica

  As of Analytica 7.1, non-English UI options is an experimental feature and not complete.

The remaining options exist for internal purposes and aren't generally used by end-users:

• /embedding: The Windows operating system uses this parameter when launching Analytica as a OLE-link server. Not used by end-users. Causes Analytica to launch quietly (without a GUI), load an indicated model, and exposes key OLE interfaces to Windows enabling an external application to complete the link to the model's data.

• /solverDevLic: This parameter is sometimes used by Analytica developers, but not generally by end-users. It indicates that the licenses from Frontline Systems found in the Solver.lic file are developer licenses rather than runtime licenses.

• /forcerelease: This parameter is used by Analytica quality assurance engineers during beta testing periods. It causes a beta release to behave like a final release build with regard to licensing.

• /config:filename: This is an option used by ACP3 (by Suan.exe) and not in Desktop Analytica. The specified config file contains settings that define the ACP3 server configuration.

• /remote-debugging-port:«port»: (new to Analytica 7.2) Exposes the Chrome DevTools protocol (remote debugging) endpoint of Analytica's embedded Chromium (CEF) browser windows on 127.0.0.1:«port», so that an external tool — a benchmark driver, Claude Code, Puppeteer, or Chrome's chrome://inspect page — can inspect and drive HTML-based windows such as the Assista chat window, HTML dialogs, and windows created with the CefWindow function. The Chromium spelling --remote-debugging-port=«port» is also accepted. Use a «port» of 0 to have a free (ephemeral) port picked automatically. Valid values are 0 or 1024 through 65535. The endpoint listens only on 127.0.0.1, and enabling it is per-process (all CEF windows of the process share one endpoint, with one DevTools target per window).

  After launch, the process reports the outcome in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Lumina\Analytica\CEF\«pid»\RemoteDebug.json, where «pid» is the process id of the launched Analytica.exe. On success this contains "status":"listening" and the actual port; when the requested port is already in use by another process, or CEF fails to initialize, it contains "status":"failed" with a reason, and a warning dialog is also shown. A tool that launches Analytica.exe with this option should read this file rather than connecting blindly, so that it cannot be fooled into talking to some other process that owns the port.

  While remote debugging is enabled, each page in a CEF window exposes the JavaScript global window.anaCefWindow with fields pid, handle, kind and title, identifying which window a DevTools target belongs to. The handle matches the handle of the corresponding CefWindow object in the model.

• /remote-allow-origins:«origins»: (new to Analytica 7.2) A comma-separated list of origins (or *) allowed to connect to the remote-debugging endpoint from a web page. This is only needed when the DevTools client is itself a web page, which sends an HTTP Origin header that Chromium rejects by default. Ordinary clients (Python or Node scripts, Puppeteer, chrome://inspect) send no Origin header and connect without this option. The Chromium spelling --remote-allow-origins=«origins» is also accepted.

• /lib:filename: (new to Analytica 7.2) Loads the Analytica library in filename into the SysLib_Customizations system module, before the model named on the command line is opened. The library is then present no matter which model is loaded, and it stays loaded as models are closed and opened during the session. The option can be repeated to load several libraries. They load in the order given, all of them before the model.

  Example usage: Analytica.exe /lib:"W:\Analytica\Libraries\Multivariate Distributions.ana" MyModel.ana

  A relative filename is looked for first in the directory that the process was launched from, then in the directories on the AddLibraryDir library search path, then in the Analytica installation folder, and finally in the preferences folder. Path substitutions such as %appdata% and %installdir% are expanded.

  Each library loaded this way is its own namespace. Since SysLib_Customizations is a private namespace, the library is not in namespace scope for the user's model. A model that wants to use one of these libraries must name it in its NamespaceImports attribute.

  When the file is not found, or when it fails to load, a warning dialog names the file and Analytica continues to start up without it.

  Uses for this include loading an MCP server in Analytica that works with whatever model is subsequently loaded, a benchmark driver, or a library that adds toolbar buttons or menu items.

• /Automation: (new to Analytica 7.2) Runs Analytica in automation mode, in which every modal dialog that would otherwise block is answered automatically, so that an unattended run never stops waiting for a person. Each dialog is answered either by a built-in default, or by a handler function that the model or a library registers with RegisterAutomationModalHandler. This is intended for unattended and agent-driven runs, such as a benchmark driver, an automated QA run, or a session driven by an AI coding agent through the MCP server in Analytica.

  This is not a headless mode. The user interface, diagram windows, HTML dialogs, and Assista all remain fully alive and usable; only the blocking dialogs are answered for you. The splash screen is suppressed, as with /nosplash.

  Some built-in defaults are deliberately conservative so that an unattended run cannot damage the model it is testing. In particular, "Save changes?" is answered No, so the model file on disk is never written when the process exits. File open and save prompts fail rather than choosing a file, unless a registered handler supplies a path.

  For the full list of defaults, how to write and register a handler, and worked examples of driving Analytica this way, see Analytica Command Line/Automation.

  Example usage: Analytica.exe /Automation /lib:BenchmarkDriver.ana MyModel.ana

• /AutomationTrace:filename: (new to Analytica 7.2) Writes a log of every modal dialog to filename, in JSON Lines format (one JSON object per line). Each dialog record names the kind of dialog, its caption and body text, the buttons it offered, the answer that was given, and where that answer came from. Records are appended, so a driver can pre-create the file and tail it while the run proceeds, and each record carries the process id so that concurrent runs remain distinguishable.

  Used together with /Automation, this records what automation answered. Used without /Automation, it is an observe mode: dialogs appear and behave completely normally, and the log records what the user actually chose. This is a convenient way to inventory which dialogs a scenario poses before you automate it.

  A relative filename is resolved against the directory the process was launched from. If the file cannot be opened, Analytica starts normally and simply produces no log.

  Example usage: Analytica.exe /Automation /AutomationTrace:C:\Temp\run1.jsonl MyModel.ana

Accessing the Command line from a model

The expression GetProcessInfo('Command line') returns the command line used to launch the process.