Python CLI Development

Typer (Recommended - Modern)

FastAPI-style CLI framework with automatic help generation.

#!/usr/bin/env python3

from typing import Optional
from enum import Enum

app = typer.Typer()

class Environment(str, Enum):
    dev = "development"
    staging = "staging"
    prod = "production"

@app.command()
def init(
    name: str = typer.Argument(..., help="Project name"),
    template: str = typer.Option("default", help="Project template"),
    force: bool = typer.Option(False, "--force", "-f", help="Overwrite existing"),
):
    """Initialize a new project"""
    typer.echo(f"Creating {name} from {template}")
    if force:
        typer.echo("Force mode enabled")

@app.command()
def deploy(
    environment: Environment = typer.Argument(..., help="Target environment"),
    dry_run: bool = typer.Option(False, "--dry-run", help="Preview only"),
    config: Optional[typer.FileText] = typer.Option(None, help="Config file"),
):
    """Deploy to environment"""
    if dry_run:
        typer.echo(f"Would deploy to: {environment.value}")
    else:
        typer.echo(f"Deploying to {environment.value}...")

# Nested commands
config_app = typer.Typer()
app.add_typer(config_app, name="config", help="Manage configuration")

@config_app.command("get")
def config_get(key: str):
    """Get config value"""
    typer.echo(f"Value: {get_config(key)}")

@config_app.command("set")
def config_set(key: str, value: str):
    """Set config value"""
    set_config(key, value)
    typer.echo(f"Set {key} = {value}")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app()

Click (Widely Used)

Powerful, composable CLI framework.

@click.group()
@click.version_option()
def cli():
    """My awesome CLI tool"""
    pass

@cli.command()
@click.argument('name')
@click.option('--template', default='default', help='Project template')
@click.option('--force', '-f', is_flag=True, help='Overwrite existing')
def init(name, template, force):
    """Initialize a new project"""
    click.echo(f"Creating {name} from {template}")

@cli.command()
@click.argument('environment', type=click.Choice(['dev', 'staging', 'prod']))
@click.option('--dry-run', is_flag=True, help='Preview only')
@click.option('--config', type=click.File('r'), help='Config file')
def deploy(environment, dry_run, config):
    """Deploy to environment"""
    if dry_run:
        click.secho(f"Would deploy to: {environment}", fg='yellow')
    else:
        click.secho(f"Deploying to {environment}...", fg='green')

# Nested groups
@cli.group()
def config():
    """Manage configuration"""
    pass

@config.command('get')
@click.argument('key')
def config_get(key):
    """Get config value"""
    click.echo(get_config(key))

@config.command('set')
@click.argument('key')
@click.argument('value')
def config_set(key, value):
    """Set config value"""
    set_config(key, value)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    cli()

Rich Terminal Output

Beautiful terminal formatting and progress indicators.

from rich.console import Console
from rich.table import Table
from rich.progress import Progress, SpinnerColumn, TextColumn
from rich.panel import Panel
from rich.syntax import Syntax
from rich import print as rprint

console = Console()

# Styled output
console.print("[bold blue]Info:[/] Starting deployment...")
console.print("[bold green]Success:[/] Deployment complete!")
console.print("[bold yellow]Warning:[/] Deprecated flag used")
console.print("[bold red]Error:[/] Deployment failed")

# Tables
table = Table(title="Deployments")
table.add_column("Environment", style="cyan")
table.add_column("Status", style="magenta")
table.add_column("Time", style="green")

table.add_row("Production", "✓ Success", "2m 34s")
table.add_row("Staging", "✗ Failed", "1m 12s")
console.print(table)

# Panels
console.print(Panel.fit(
    "Deploy to production?",
    title="Confirmation",
    border_style="red"
))

# Syntax highlighting
code = '''
def deploy(env: str):
    print(f"Deploying to {env}")
'''
console.print(Syntax(code, "python", theme="monokai"))

# Progress bars
with Progress() as progress:
    task = progress.add_task("[cyan]Deploying...", total=100)
    for i in range(100):
        do_work()
        progress.update(task, advance=1)

# Spinners
with Progress(
    SpinnerColumn(),
    TextColumn("[progress.description]{task.description}"),
) as progress:
    task = progress.add_task("Installing dependencies...")
    install_dependencies()

Interactive Prompts (questionary)

# Text input
name = questionary.text(
    "Project name:",
    default="my-project",
    validate=lambda x: len(x) > 0 or "Name required"
).ask()

# Select from list
environment = questionary.select(
    "Select environment:",
    choices=["development", "staging", "production"],
    default="development"
).ask()

# Checkbox (multi-select)
features = questionary.checkbox(
    "Select features:",
    choices=[
        questionary.Choice("TypeScript", checked=True),
        questionary.Choice("ESLint", checked=True),
        questionary.Choice("Prettier", checked=True),
        questionary.Choice("Jest", checked=False),
    ]
).ask()

# Confirmation
confirmed = questionary.confirm(
    "Deploy to production?",
    default=False
).ask()

if confirmed:
    deploy()

# Password
password = questionary.password("Enter password:").ask()

Argparse (Standard Library)

Built-in argument parsing (verbose but no dependencies).

def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
        prog='mycli',
        description='My awesome CLI tool',
    )
    parser.add_argument('--version', action='version', version='1.0.0')

    subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(dest='command', required=True)

    # Init command
    init_parser = subparsers.add_parser('init', help='Initialize project')
    init_parser.add_argument('name', help='Project name')
    init_parser.add_argument('--template', default='default', help='Template')
    init_parser.add_argument('-f', '--force', action='store_true')

    # Deploy command
    deploy_parser = subparsers.add_parser('deploy', help='Deploy')
    deploy_parser.add_argument(
        'environment',
        choices=['dev', 'staging', 'prod'],
        help='Target environment'
    )
    deploy_parser.add_argument('--dry-run', action='store_true')
    deploy_parser.add_argument('--config', type=argparse.FileType('r'))

    args = parser.parse_args()

    if args.command == 'init':
        init(args.name, args.template, args.force)
    elif args.command == 'deploy':
        deploy(args.environment, args.dry_run, args.config)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Error Handling

from pathlib import Path

app = typer.Typer()

@app.command()
def deploy():
    try:
        perform_deploy()
    except PermissionError as e:
        typer.secho("Permission denied", fg=typer.colors.RED, err=True)
        typer.echo("Try running with sudo or check file permissions")
        raise typer.Exit(code=77)
    except FileNotFoundError as e:
        typer.secho(f"File not found: {e.filename}", fg=typer.colors.RED, err=True)
        raise typer.Exit(code=127)
    except Exception as e:
        typer.secho(f"Deployment failed: {e}", fg=typer.colors.RED, err=True)
        if os.getenv('DEBUG'):

            traceback.print_exc()
        raise typer.Exit(code=1)

# Handle KeyboardInterrupt (Ctrl+C)
def main():
    try:
        app()
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        typer.echo("\
Operation cancelled")
        sys.exit(130)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Configuration Management

from pathlib import Path
from typing import Any

class Config:
    def __init__(self):
        self.config_paths = [
            Path("/etc/mycli/config.json"),          # System
            Path.home() / ".config" / "mycli" / "config.json",  # User
            Path.cwd() / "mycli.json",               # Project
        ]

    def load(self) -> dict[str, Any]:
        config = self._defaults()

        # Load from files (lowest to highest priority)
        for path in self.config_paths:
            if path.exists():
                with path.open() as f:
                    config.update(json.load(f))

        # Override with environment variables
        for key in config.keys():
            env_var = f"MYCLI_{key.upper()}"
            if env_var in os.environ:
                config[key] = os.environ[env_var]

        return config

    def _defaults(self) -> dict[str, Any]:
        return {
            "environment": "development",
            "verbose": False,
            "timeout": 30,
        }

Setup.py / pyproject.toml

# pyproject.toml
[build-system]
requires = ["setuptools>=61.0"]
build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"

[project]
name = "mycli"
version = "1.0.0"
description = "My awesome CLI tool"
requires-python = ">=3.10"
dependencies = [
    "typer[all]>=0.9.0",
    "rich>=13.0.0",
    "questionary>=2.0.0",
]

[project.scripts]
mycli = "mycli.cli:main"

[project.optional-dependencies]
dev = [
    "pytest>=7.0.0",
    "pytest-cov>=4.0.0",
]

Testing CLIs

from typer.testing import CliRunner
from mycli.cli import app

runner = CliRunner()

def test_version():
    result = runner.invoke(app, ["--version"])
    assert result.exit_code == 0
    assert "1.0.0" in result.stdout

def test_init():
    result = runner.invoke(app, ["init", "my-project"])
    assert result.exit_code == 0
    assert "Creating my-project" in result.stdout

def test_init_with_template():
    result = runner.invoke(app, ["init", "my-project", "--template", "react"])
    assert result.exit_code == 0
    assert "react" in result.stdout

def test_invalid_command():
    result = runner.invoke(app, ["invalid"])
    assert result.exit_code != 0

Progress Bars (tqdm)

from tqdm import tqdm

# Simple progress bar
for i in tqdm(range(100), desc="Processing"):
    process_item(i)

# Custom format
with tqdm(total=100, desc="Downloading", unit="MB") as pbar:
    for chunk in download_chunks():
        pbar.update(len(chunk))

# Multiple progress bars
from tqdm import trange

for epoch in trange(10, desc="Epochs"):
    for batch in trange(100, desc="Batches", leave=False):
        train_batch(batch)