Tableau Prep Help

Run the command as an administrator from the directory where the .exe file is located or specify a full path to the location of the .exe file on the computer. Do not run from a shared directory. For a list of supported installer options see Installer options(Link opens in a new window). For a list of supported installer properties, see Installer properties(Link opens in a new window).

• tableau_<product_installer_name>.exe is the Tableau installer for the product and version you're installing.

• option1, option2, etc is how you want the install process to run.

• PROPERTY1, PROPERTY2, etc. lets you specify configuration settings that the installer should make during the install process.

Example:

tableauPrepBuilder-64bit-2026-2-0.exe /quiet /norestart ACCEPTEULA=1 CRASHDUMP="0" SENDTELEMETRY="0"

This command installs Tableau version 2026.2 in quiet mode (doesn’t display prompts, UI or the license dialog). It finishes the install without a restart, accepts the end-user license agreement (EULA), and sets error reporting and usage reporting to off.

Activate the product using the supplied product key. Exits with code 0 on success. Otherwise exits with an error code. Also accepts single-dash (-activate).

To activate the product during install add a single command line that includes the installer option ACTIVATE_KEY "<key>" and enter the product key in quotes.

Register the product. Also accepts single-dash (-register). To register Tableau from the command line, you need to prefill the registry (Windows) or .plist (Mac) values on each computer that will run Tableau Prep Builder.

For Windows you can register the product during install by adding a single command line that includes the installer option REGISTER="1".

For more information, see Register Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder(Link opens in a new window).

Updates licenses with the date when their current maintenance period expires and stops expiration messages. Exits with code 0 on success. Also accepts single-dash (-refresh).

Windows: Run tableau.exe with the --refresh option and a product key.

MacOS: Run the -refresh option on the Tableau object in the /Applications path.

Deactivate the supplied product key so it can be reused. Also accepts single-dash (-return).

Windows: Run tableau.exe with the -return option and a product key.

MacOS: Run the -return option on the Tableau object in the /Applications path.

Load application configuration settings from the given file. Can be specified multiple times to support layered configurations such as when you have a global proxy server configuration used by everyone and a specific database configuration used for a flow.

.json file example:

{
 "connection-sources":[
  {
	"endpoint":"prod-db-server.company.com",
	"username":"service_account_admin",
	"password":"secure_password_123"
	}
 ]
}

Example command:

Windows: "C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Prep Builder 2026.2\Tableau Prep Builder.exe" --settings-file "C:\ProgramData\Tableau\global-proxy-config.json" --settings-file "C:\Users\jsmith\AppData\Roaming\Tableau\db-config.json"

MacOS: /Applications/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder\ 2026.2.app/Contents/MacOS/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder --settings-file "/Library/Tableau/global-proxy-config.json" --settings-file "/Users/jsmith/Library/Application Support/Tableau/db-config.json"

Set the repository directory. By default during install, Tableau Prep creates a folder in your Documents folder called My Tableau Prep Repository. This folder includes folders for flows., datasources, connections, as well as log files, and a temporary cache. In server or automation environments, you can use this command to specify an alternative repository location and point the flow run to it.

Example:

Windows: "C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Prep Builder 2026.2\Tableau Prep Builder.exe" --repository-location "D:\Tableau_Data\My_Prep_Repo"

MacOS: /Applications/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder\ 2026.2.app/Contents/MacOS/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder --repository-location "/Users/jsmith/Documents/My Tableau Prep Repository"

Directory used for storing Electron application data.

While --repository-location manages your business assets (logs and data), --user-data-directory manages the application's internal engine.

As an Admin, use this flag if you are running Tableau Prep Builder in a high-concurrency environment where multiple processes need isolated application states, or when troubleshooting persistent session-lock errors on a headless server.

Note:When you run the command, it automatically creates the folder specified in the --user-data-directory. However, the user account running the script must have "Write" permissions to that parent directory.

Example:

Windows: "C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Prep Builder 2026.2\Tableau Prep Builder.exe" --user-data-directory "D:\Tableau_Data\Prep_AppData"

MacOS: /Applications/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder\ 2026.2.app/Contents/MacOS/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder --user-data-directory "/Users/jsmith/Library/Application Support/Tableau Prep"

Open the specified .tfl flow file. Use double quotes if your file path includes spaces.

Example:

Windows: "C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Prep Builder 2026.2\Tableau Prep Builder.exe" -tfl "C:\Users\jsmith\Documents\My Flows\Clean_Sales_Data.tfl"

MacOS: /Applications/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder\ 2026.2.app/Contents/MacOS/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder -tfl "/Users/jsmith/Documents/My Flows/Clean_Sales_Data.tfl"

Open the specified .tflx packaged flow file.

Example:

Windows:"C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Prep Builder 2026.2\Tableau Prep Builder.exe" --tflx "C:\Users\jsmith\Desktop\Quarterly_Report.tflx"

MacOS: /Applications/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder\ 2026.2.app/Contents/MacOS/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder --tflx "/Users/jsmith/Desktop/Quarterly_Report.tflx"

The path to the .json file containing the credentials for your data sources and servers.

Tableau Prep Builder uses information from the flow file and from the credentials .json file to run the flow when you have remote connections. For more information, see Credentials .json file requirements(Link opens in a new window).

If you connect to a snowflake database, be sure to include any specific parameters like Role, Warehouse, and sometimes OAuth tokens or External Browser authentication.

.json settings file example - Snowflake:

{
 "connection-sources":[
  {
	"endpoint":"company_account.snowflakecomputing.com",
	"username":"SVC_TABLEAU_PREP",
	"password":"EncryptedPassword123",
	"attributes":{
	 "warehouse": "DATA_LOAD_WH",
	 "role": "TRANSFORM_ROLE"
	}
  }
 ]
}						

Example:

Windows: "\[Tableau Prep Builder install location]\Tableau Prep Builder <version>\scripts"\tableau-prep-cli.bat -c "path\to\[your credential file name].json" -t "path\to\[your flow file name].tfl"

MacOS: /Applications/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder\ [Tableau Prep Builder version].app/Contents/scripts/./tableau-prep-cli -c path/to/[your credential file name].json -t path/to/[your flow file name].tfl

The path to a .json file that overrides the default parameter values in your flow. This is a separate file from your credentials.json file and includes your parameter names and values.

For more information, see “Run flows that include parameter values” in Credentials .json file requirements(Link opens in a new window).

Example:

Windows: "\[Tableau Prep Builder install location]\Tableau Prep Builder <version>\scripts"\tableau-prep-cli.bat -t "path\to\[your flow file name].tfl" -p|--parameters parameters.override.json

MacOS: /Applications/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder\ [Tableau Prep Builder version].app/Contents/scripts/./tableau-prep-cli -t path/to/[your flow file name].tfl -p|--parameters parameters.override.json

If you don’t have Tableau Prep Conductor enabled on your server to schedule flow runs, you can use this command to run your flow using incremental refresh. For more information, see Run the flow with incremental refresh enabled.

Example:

Windows: "\[Tableau Prep Builder install location]\Tableau Prep Builder <version>\scripts"\tableau-prep-cli.bat --incrementalRefresh -t "path\to\[your flow file name].tfl"

MacOS: /Applications/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder\ [Tableau Prep Builder version].app/Contents/scripts/./tableau-prep-cli --incrementalRefresh -t path/to/[your flow file name].tfl

Enables debug mode. Generates detailed logs in the repository folder for troubleshooting. Log files are stored in: My Tableau Prep Builder Repository\Command Line Repository\Logs

Example:

Windows: "\[Tableau Prep Builder install location]\Tableau Prep Builder <version>\scripts"\tableau-prep-cli.bat --debug -t "[your flow file name].tfl"

MacOS: /Applications/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder\ [Tableau Prep Builder version].app/Contents/scripts/./tableau-prep-cli --debug -t “[your flow file name]”.tfl

Disables SSL certificate validation (useful for certain internal server environments). When running this option on MacOS, a dialog may show asking for the keychain user and password.

Starting with Tableau Prep Builder version 2019.3.2, you can pass in this additional parameter to disable this keychain dialog.

Example:

MacOS: /Applications/Tableau\ Prep\ Builder\ [Tableau Prep Builder version].app/Contents/scripts/./tableau-prep-cli -dsv -c path/to/[your credential file name].json -t path/to/[your flow file name].tfl

Displays the help menu for the command-line options.