unity-cli-core skill

UnityCLI core

UnityCLI is a standalone unity binary from Unity Technologies (experimental, first public betas in 2026). It replaces the Unity Hub CLI and adds live control of a running Unity Editor. It is NOT Unity.exe (the editor binary with -batchmode flags) and NOT Unity Hub.

Two other skills cover the specialized halves:

• unity-editors — installing editors/modules, licenses, projects (Hub replacement)
• unity-pipeline — driving a running Editor (build, test, play mode, scene/asset commands)

Locating the binary — check before concluding it is missing

The tool is real even if you have no prior knowledge of it: it shipped after most model knowledge cutoffs. command not found almost always means a stale shell PATH, not a missing tool.

• Windows: binary at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Unity\bin\unity.exe. The installer adds that dir to the user PATH — long-lived shells (agent harnesses, old terminals) don't see it. Fix for the current session:

  $env:Path += ";$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Unity\bin"
  

• macOS/Linux: the install script updates the shell profile; run command -v unity in a fresh login shell or source the profile.
• Do NOT search Unity Hub folders, Editor/ folders, or npm — the CLI lives in none of them.
• If genuinely absent: do not install it yourself — see "Installs require user consent" below.

Verify with unity --version (e.g. 1.0.0-beta.3).

Installs require user consent

Two separate things get installed, and they solve different problems:

What	Scope	Enables	Install
UnityCLI binary	per machine	Installing/opening editors, managing projects, licenses — no running-Editor control	script from https://docs.unity.com/en-us/unity-cli/use-unity-cli
Unity Pipeline package (com.unity.pipeline)	per Unity project	Controlling a running Editor: unity command, play mode, live builds/tests (skill unity-pipeline)	unity pipeline install

The CLI alone is enough for editor/project management. Editor control needs both.

Neither is yours to install on your own initiative. The binary install changes the user's machine and shell profile; unity pipeline install edits the project's Packages/manifest.json and triggers a recompile — a change that lands in version control. When either is missing, stop, tell the user what is missing and what it unblocks, propose the exact command, and continue only after the user agrees (or has already explicitly asked for the install).

Agent/CI invocation defaults

unity --json --non-interactive <command>

Flag / env var	Effect
--format json|tsv|ndjson, --json (UNITY_FORMAT)	Structured output — parse this, never the human tables
--non-interactive (UNITY_NON_INTERACTIVE)	Disables prompts; many commands open interactive selectors when args are omitted
--no-banner, --quiet (UNITY_NO_BANNER, UNITY_QUIET)	Suppress banner / info noise
--verbose (UNITY_VERBOSE)	Full error details with stack traces
UNITY_NO_CONSENT_PROMPT (env only, no flag)	Suppresses the one-time first-run analytics consent prompt without recording a choice — for wrappers and agent shells that must never absorb a prompt (unity analytics manages the persistent choice)
UNITY_NO_CRASH_REPORT (env only, no flag)	Disables anonymous crash/error reporting entirely

Exit code is 0 on success, non-zero on failure (e.g. 6 for an unknown editor command). Error messages usually include recovery hints — read them.

For many commands in one session, unity shell --protocol ndjson runs a single warm process speaking one JSON request per line, one JSON result per line — amortizes the per-command startup cost.

Auth

Cloud-backed features (Pipeline package install, cloud, some licenses) need sign-in:

unity auth status    # check first
unity auth login     # opens browser; --client-id/--client-secret for service accounts

Command map

Area	Commands	Details
Editor installs, modules, licenses, projects, templates	install, install-modules, editors, releases, uninstall, install-path, editor, modules, license, open, projects, templates, hub	skill unity-editors
Live Editor control & headless runs	status, command, list, pipeline, build, test, run	skill unity-pipeline
MCP	unity mcp (stdio MCP server for the Editor), unity mcp configure <client>	unity mcp configure --list
Diagnostics	doctor, status, env, logs, diagnose, bug	doctor = environment check
CLI self-management	upgrade, changelog, self-uninstall, config, cache, analytics, language, completion, shell	shell = warm REPL, --protocol ndjson for machine use
Cloud	auth, cloud (orgs/projects)

unity --help and unity <cmd> --help are always current. The CLI is experimental — verify flags with --help before scripting against them.

Common mistakes

Mistake	Reality
"unity: command not found → the tool doesn't exist / isn't installed"	Stale PATH. Check %LOCALAPPDATA%\Unity\bin (Windows) or a fresh login shell first.
Reaching for raw Unity.exe -batchmode -quit per action	UnityCLI drives an already-running Editor without relaunching it; for headless, unity build/test/run wrap batch mode, and -batchmode without -quit keeps a resident Pipeline-serving editor (skill unity-pipeline).
Parsing human-formatted table output	Pass --json and parse the structured result.
Command hangs in CI/agent context	An interactive selector opened. Pass all required args plus --non-interactive (and -y where supported).
Installing the CLI or the Pipeline package silently to unblock a task	Both are user-consent installs — propose the command, wait for a yes.
Treating an EBUSY: resource busy or locked, rm failure as caused by your invocation	Lock contention on %APPDATA%\UnityHub, shared by the CLI and Unity Hub. Hits Hub-data commands (releases, templates, projects, doctor, open, editors); Editor-connection commands (status, command, list, pipeline list) keep working. Hub running → close it and retry, don't delete locks. Hub closed → remove stale .lock directories and retry. Never kill a slow Hub-data command mid-run — that manufactures stale locks. Full recovery procedure: skill unity-pipeline, references/lifecycle-recovery.md