CLI Reference

QuickLook provides three command-line tools: ql, read_tls, and rank_tls.

ql -- Run QuickLook analysis

ql --name TARGET [options]

Required

Flag	Description
--name NAME	Target name (TOI, TIC, or common name)

Observation selection

Flag	Default	Description
--sector SECTOR	-1 (latest)	TESS sector number
--pipeline PIPELINE	spoc	Light curve pipeline: spoc, tess-spoc, qlp, cdips, pathos, tglc, tasoc
--fluxtype TYPE	pdcsap	Flux column: pdcsap or sap
--exptime SECONDS	auto	Exposure time in seconds
--quality_bitmask MASK	default	Quality mask: none, default, hard, hardest

Detrending

Flag	Default	Description
--flatten_method METHOD	biweight	Detrending method (any wotan method)
--window_length DAYS	auto	Detrending window length in days (0 = auto-optimize)
--edge_cutoff DAYS	0.1	Cut this many days from each orbit edge
--sigma_clip_raw LO HI	10 5	Sigma clipping on raw light curve before flattening
--sigma_clip_flat LO HI	none	Sigma clipping on flattened light curve

Period search

Flag	Default	Description
--pg_method METHOD	gls	Periodogram method: gls, ls, or bls
--period_limits MIN MAX	auto	TLS search range in days (default: 0.5 to baseline/2)

Ephemeris

Flag	Default	Description
--custom_ephem Tc Tcerr P Perr Tdur Tdurerr	none	Custom ephemeris (6 values in days)
-mask_ephem	off	Mask known transits before detrending

Output

Flag	Default	Description
--outdir DIR	.	Output directory
--suffix TEXT	none	Suffix appended to output filenames
--survey NAME	dss1	Archival image survey for overlay
-save	off	Save figure (.png) and TLS results (.h5)
-verbose	off	Print detailed progress
-overwrite	off	Overwrite existing output files

Multi-sector mode

Flag	Default	Description
--each-sector	off	Run on every available sector individually
-j, --jobs N	1	Number of parallel jobs for --each-sector

Examples

# Basic run on latest sector
ql --name TOI-1234 -save -verbose

# Specific sector and pipeline
ql --name TOI-125.01 --sector 2 --pipeline qlp

# Custom detrending
ql --name HD209458 --flatten_method cosine --window_length 0.3

# Restrict period search range
ql --name TOI-125.01 --period_limits 1 5

# Run all sectors, save results
ql --name TOI-125.01 --each-sector -save

# Run all sectors with 4 parallel workers
ql --name TOI-125.01 --each-sector -j 4 -save

# Pipe output to a log file
ql --name TIC-52368076 -verbose -save | tee output.log

read_tls -- Read TLS results

Scan a directory of .h5 TLS output files and produce a summary CSV:

read_tls OUTPUT_DIR

This creates OUTPUT_DIR_tls.csv with columns for period, depth, SDE, and other TLS metrics. Useful for ranking candidates after batch processing.

rank_tls -- Rank candidates

Filter and rank candidates from the CSV produced by read_tls:

rank_tls OUTPUT_DIR --output_dir ranked

This copies the plots of candidates that pass the filters into the ranked/ directory, sorted by Signal Detection Efficiency (SDE).