# Launching GitHub Desktop from the command line

You can launch GitHub Desktop from the command line.

<div class="ghd-tool mac">

1. In the menu bar, select the **GitHub Desktop** menu, then click **Install Command Line Tool**.
   ![Screenshot of the menu bar on a Mac. Under the "GitHub Desktop" dropdown menu, the option "Install command line tool" is highlighted in blue.](/assets/images/help/desktop/mac-install-command-line-tool.png)
2. Open Terminal.
3. To launch GitHub Desktop to the last opened repository, type `github`. To launch GitHub Desktop for a particular repository, type `github` followed by the path to the repository.

   ```shell
   github /PATH/TO/REPO
   ```

   You can also change to your repository path and then type `github .` to open that repository.

   ```shell
   $ cd /PATH/TO/REPO
   [repo]$ github .
   ```

</div>

<div class="ghd-tool windows">

1. Open a command prompt.
2. To launch GitHub Desktop to the last opened repository, type `github`. To launch GitHub Desktop for a particular repository, type `github` followed by the path to the repository.

   ```shell
   C:\Users\octocat> github PATH\TO\REPO
   ```

   You can also change to your repository path and then type `github .` to open that repository.

   ```shell
   C:\Users\octocat> cd REPO\MY-REPO
   C:\Users\octocat\repo\myrepo> github .
   ```

</div>