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Running Moneydance 2024 from the command line on macOS?

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Lionel

11 Jan, 2026 11:42 PM

I'm trying to start Moneydance 2024.4 (5253) from the command line, and it seems to be ignoring the name of the file. I'm doing it based on the way it's done here: https://github.com/yogi1967/MoneydancePythonScripts/blob/master/lau... :

/Applications/Moneydance.app/Contents/MacOS/Moneydance "/Users/$USER/Library/Containers/com.infinitekind.MoneydanceOSX/Data/Documents/CY2025.moneydance"

It just opens the "Welcome to Moneydance" window rather than the specified file.

What's the latest "correct" way to do this?

I'm ultimately trying to run a script and exit, so if there is updated information on the other parameters and getting them to work, that would be helpful as well.

Thanks!

< Lionel

1. 1 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 12 Jan, 2026 12:33 AM

   

   I think your problem is the use of $USER inside double quotes. It’s not a MD problem, it’s that you are not passing a valid path.

   Use echo (and your path) to prove how it’s being resolved.

   Also, there is no MD parameter to launch a python script inside MD, only to invoke an extension (command). You would have to package and install a small python extension that listens for commands to make that work.

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2. Support Staff 2 Posted by Sean Reilly on 12 Jan, 2026 08:47 AM

   
   I would think that environment variables should work in your script, but maybe try $HOME instead of $USER?

   
   

   On 12 Jan 2026, at 00:33, Stuart Beesley (Mr Toolbox) <[email blocked]> wrote:
   
   

    pre { width: 92%; margin: 10px 2%; padding: 5px 2%; background: rgb(239, 239, 239); border: 1px solid rgb(214, 214, 214); } blockquote { margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 1em; border-left-width: 5px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); }

   // Please reply above this line ================================================== From: Stuart Beesley (Mr Toolbox) <[email blocked]> I think your problem is the use of $USER inside double quotes. It’s not a MD problem, it’s that you are not passing a valid path. Use echo (and your path) to prove how it’s being resolved. Also, there is no MD parameter to launch a python script inside MD, only to invoke an extension (command). You would have to package and install a small python extension that listens for commands to make that work. On Sun, Jan 11 at 03:42 PM PST, Lionel wrote: I'm trying to start Moneydance 2024.4 (5253) from the command line, and it seems to be ignoring the name of the file. I'm doing it based on the way it's done here: https://github.com/yogi1967/MoneydancePythonScripts/blob/master/lau... : /Applications/Moneydance.app/Contents/MacOS/Moneydance "/Users/$USER/Library/Containers/com.infinitekind.MoneydanceOSX/Data/Documents/CY2025.moneydance" It just opens the "Welcome to Moneydance" window rather than the specified file. What's the latest "correct" way to do this? I'm ultimately trying to run a script and exit, so if there is updated information on the other parameters and getting them to work, that would be helpful as well. Thanks! < Lionel

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3. 3 Posted by Lionel on 12 Jan, 2026 05:26 PM

   

   I posted it as $USER so that the example wouldn't be specific to my running it. Since this is a UNIX shell on macOS, i.e. bash, it expands to the right thing, even within double-quotes (single quotes of course wouldn't work).

   To replicate what I'm seeing, you can replace $USER with whatever is correct on your machine.

   Since Moneydance reported its current directory as being /.../Data, the parent of Documents/ in my example above, I also tried going with Documents/CY2005.moneydance on the off chance that (contrary to the shell script example, which says absolute path) sandboxing or something meant that it now needed to be relative to the current directory. That didn't help, either.

   I'm also assuming that although the sample script says "datafile", it's correct to supply the parameter as I showed above ... despite it (technically) being a directory not a file from the shell's perspective?

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4. 4 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 12 Jan, 2026 06:32 PM

   

   Well, on my Mac from terminal I just tried this and it loaded MD and opened the file fine:

   /Applications/Moneydance.app/Contents/MacOS/Moneydance "/Users/xxx/Library/Containers/com.infinitekind.MoneydanceOSX/Data/Documents/test-file.moneydance"
   

   can you add -d as the first parameter, and supply the output you see on console before the welcome screen opens?

   So, I just switched to Linux (Mint) and this worked fine there too:

   /opt/Moneydance/Moneydance -d "/home/xxx/Desktop/test-file.moneydance"
   

   and this worked too:

   /opt/Moneydance/Moneydance -d "$HOME/Desktop/test-file.moneydance"
   

   what happens if you run:

   ls "<the path you are using>" -l
   
   ?
   

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5. 5 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 01 Feb, 2026 09:56 PM

   

   ?

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6. 6 Posted by Lionel on 02 Feb, 2026 07:41 PM

   

   It stopped being reproducible for me too. I'm not aware of anything that changed. So I just moved on.

   I don't suppose anyone has done an extension that can run a jython script (and then exit)?

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7. 7 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 05 Feb, 2026 03:48 PM

   

   It’s possible but I suspect IK would not sign it. But possible.

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