diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index 394321db8..8994eb8ea 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ Detailed list of changes
 
 - Keyboard protocol: Do not deliver a fake key release events on OS window focus out for engaged modifiers (:iss:`7196`)
 
+- Ignore :opt:`startup_session` when kitty is invoked with command line options specifying a command to run (:pull:`7198`)
 
 0.32.2 [2024-02-12]
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/kitty/options/definition.py b/kitty/options/definition.py
index 5a792bb02..26f0daed1 100644
--- a/kitty/options/definition.py
+++ b/kitty/options/definition.py
@@ -3057,8 +3057,8 @@
 instances. See :ref:`sessions` in the kitty documentation for details. Note that
 relative paths are interpreted with respect to the kitty config directory.
 Environment variables in the path are expanded. Changing this option by
-reloading the config is not supported. Note that this prevents kitty from processing
-any command line arguments as a program to run.
+reloading the config is not supported. Note that if kitty is invoked with command line
+arguments specifying a command to run, this option is ignored.
 '''
     )
 
diff --git a/kitty/session.py b/kitty/session.py
index bf1d9efbf..3f9866f0f 100644
--- a/kitty/session.py
+++ b/kitty/session.py
@@ -222,7 +222,7 @@ def create_sessions(
                     session_data = f.read()
             yield from parse_session(session_data, opts, environ=environ)
             return
-    if default_session and default_session != 'none':
+    if default_session and default_session != 'none' and not getattr(args, 'args', None):
         try:
             with open(default_session) as f:
                 session_data = f.read()