It creates a startup launcher, running gedit when I login. If I run it with the command: python3 '/path/to/script' 'Test' 'gedit' To create such a launcher from the command line, you would need a small script that would take the name of the starter and the command to run as an argument. More on required fields, you can find here. The (optional) line X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true will be added automatically if you enable/disable the autostart function of the launcher (it is set to X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true by default) desktop files: the keywords / lines you'd need at least: Like you mention in your question, commands can be run on log in by placing a launcher in ~/.config/autostart Since the launcher is only used to startup a script, you only need the 'basic' desktop entry keywords in the created. How to set up a startup launcher from command line
