# MATLAB.jl connecting to named engine

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matlab-jl-connecting-to-named-engine/35847>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [March 11, 2020, 5:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matlab-jl-connecting-to-named-engine/35847 "2020-03-11T17:03:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jonniedie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jonniedie/32/12842_2.png) [@jonniedie](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jonniedie)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 5:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matlab-jl-connecting-to-named-engine/35847/1 "2020-03-11T17:03:47Z")

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The matlab.engine API for Python has a method [`connect_matlab`](https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/apiref/matlab.engine.connect_matlab.html) for connecting to an open, named MATLAB session, which is nice for passing variables back and forth between Python and MATLAB workspaces. I was wondering if any similar functionality was possible with MATLAB.jl. I couldn’t find anything in the documentation and I tried passing the engine name as a string to `MSession`, but that doesn’t seem to be supported. Another option is going through Python as a bridge using PyCall, but this didn’t work immediately and I didn’t really want to spend time debugging it if a less hacky way already exists.

If this isn’t possible, is there at least a way to start an MSession with the full MATLAB IDE instead of just the minimal command prompt window?