Game Console

Factorio has an in-game console that is used for chatting with other players, getting some in-game notifications, and running console commands. The console is opened by pressing the GRAVEkey, typically on the left of the 1 key. A player can then type command or message text here and then submit it by pressing ENTER or cancel and clear it by pressing ESCAPE.

When something is printed to the console, the game usually makes a sound effect. This is audible for example when you toggle Vanilla Mode on or off with CONTROL + ALT + V.

In update 0.14.1, Factorio Access added support for notifying when the console has been opened and for reading out commands and messages at the moment they get submitted. Non-player messages from the console do not have API access and we have not yet added a menu for keeping console message history.

Console commands can be used to run Lua scripts in game. They are like modding the game while it is live. The commands disable achievements, so the first time you try to input any commands, you will be presented with a warning about this instead of executing the command. You can re-enter the command to pass the warning and subsequent commands can then be entered just once.

Sometimes console commands are discussed by the mod devs or players. We use them for hotfixing bugs or editing map generation settings for already-created maps. However, much is possible with them.

More about the console and examples of commands can be found on the official wiki page for the console.