Maya Project Resolution Across GUI and Headless Launch Modes

Maya resolves relative texture, cache, and reference paths against the active project directory defined by workspace.mel, but that directory is an implicit launch-mode state rather than a scene property. In an interactive desktop session, Maya often inherits the last-used project or prompts the user to select one, which can mask missing project configuration. In headless or render-farm contexts, such as mayabatch or Render, Maya may instead default to a generic project or the user’s home directory when no project is explicitly supplied.

The goal is to make a scene authored locally resolve identically in production without relying on interactive prompts. While the -project command-line flag and the MAYA_PROJECT environment variable are documented for explicit selection, Maya does not guarantee a single deterministic precedence order across GUI, batch, and render-launch modes, leaving behavior version- and platform-sensitive. Additionally, overrides made through the File Path Editor or the workspace command are not automatically serialized with the scene.

Which launch-time mechanism should be treated as authoritative when both MAYA_PROJECT and -project are present in a headless render job? Is there a supported way to lock the project directory into the scene so batch and render launches cannot silently fall back to a default? Do workspace command path overrides persist across launch modes, or must the project be re-established in every environment?