ArgMan

A lightweight, zero-dependency argument parser for Python CLI tools — simple, testable, and intuitive.

Features

• Short (-v) and long (--verbose) flags
• Type-safe parsing: int, float, str, bool, list
• Default values and boolean toggles
• Repeated arguments with arg_list
• Automatic --no-flag for booleans
• Positional arguments
• --arg=value and -- terminator support
• Clean help and error messages
• Config file support (JSON) via load_config()
• Export parsed args via dump_args()
• Choices validation(choices=[...])
• Custom validation(validator=...)
• Relation between arguments: requires, conflicts

Documentation

Usage examples and API reference: docs/

Installation

You can install ArgMan directly from PyPi:

pip install argman

Running Tests

python -m unittest discover tests

Roadmap

v0.1 — Core Functionality

• Complete

v0.2 — Extended Features

• arg_list, --no-flag, --arg=value, -- support
• Custom error messages
• config files(load_config, dump_args)
• subcommands(one level, must be first argument can be nested now)
• custom argv support(e.g., ArgMan(argv=['prog', '--num', '5']))

v0.3 — Docs & Publish

• Docs ready
• Publish to PyPI

v0.4 — Validation & Customization

• Choices: Limit argument values to a predefined set of allowed options.
• Validators: Define custom checks for argument values (e.g., range, format).
• Dependencies: Specify relationships between arguments (requires, conflicts).
• Formatters: Apply custom transformations to parsed argument values (e.g., str.lower).

v0.5 — Argument Organization

• Argument Groups: Show arguments in group in help message(group_args)
• Hidden Arguments: Hidden in help message
• Color Output: Add color to help message(colored_help and 'colors')
• Deprecated Arguments

v0.6 — Advanced Parsing Features

• Count Arguments with arg_count: Track how many times flag appears(-vvv)
• arg_dict method: Support for --env KEY=VALUE syntax
• Range Values: Parse --pages 1-10 as range object
• Argument Abbrevation: --verb matches --verbose

License

LGPL-3.0 © 2025