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Start a UiPath Studio instance and wait until it is ready using `uip rpa start-studio`.
uip rpa start-studio brings up a UiPath Studio instance and waits until it reports ready. Most uip rpa verbs that drive Studio bring up an instance on demand, so calling start-studio explicitly is rarely needed — use it when you want to warm up Studio at the beginning of a script (so the first downstream verb does not pay the startup cost) or to verify that a Studio installation is reachable.
The command is short-circuit safe: if a Studio instance already matches the resolved project directory, it is reused. Otherwise, the tool starts a new one.
Studio is Windows-only
Synopsis
uip rpa start-studio [options]
uip rpa start-studio [options]
This verb takes no arguments and no per-command options. Resolution behavior is controlled by the parent-level options shared by every uip rpa verb:
| Parent option | Description |
|---|---|
--project-dir <path> | Project directory used to match against running Studio instances. Defaults to the current working directory. |
--studio-dir <path> | Path to a Studio installation, when discovery cannot find one automatically. |
--timeout <seconds> | Maximum time to wait for a Studio instance to become ready. Default: 300. |
--verbose | Enable verbose logging from the IPC resolver. |
For the complete option list on your installed tool version, run:
uip rpa start-studio --help
uip rpa --help
uip rpa start-studio --help
uip rpa --help
Behavior
The resolution waterfall:
- Match by project directory — if a running Studio instance has the requested
--project-diropen, that instance is reused. - Idle instance — if a Studio instance is running but has no project open, the project is opened in it.
- Start a new Studio — otherwise, a new Studio process is started and polled until it reports ready.
On success, the command prints the resolved instance's process ID. The instance stays running after the command exits — uip rpa start-studio does not own the lifecycle of the Studio process; closing Studio is left to the user.
Examples
# Bring up Studio for the current directory
uip rpa start-studio
# Bring up Studio for a specific project
uip rpa start-studio --project-dir ./MyProject
# Verbose, so you can see where the resolver is looking
uip rpa start-studio --verbose
# Bring up Studio for the current directory
uip rpa start-studio
# Bring up Studio for a specific project
uip rpa start-studio --project-dir ./MyProject
# Verbose, so you can see where the resolver is looking
uip rpa start-studio --verbose
Warm-up pattern
Other verbs auto-resolve Studio on demand, but the first one in a session pays the startup cost. To shift that cost to a setup step:
uip rpa start-studio --project-dir ./MyProject
# downstream verbs reuse the warmed-up instance
uip rpa get-errors
uip rpa find-activities --query "Click"
uip rpa start-studio --project-dir ./MyProject
# downstream verbs reuse the warmed-up instance
uip rpa get-errors
uip rpa find-activities --query "Click"
Related
uip rpa list-instances— list running Studio instances visible to the resolver (hidden in--help; callable directly).