argopt

doc to argparse driven by docopt

Define your command line interface (CLI) from a docstring (rather than the other way around). Because it’s easy. It’s quick. Painless. Then focus on what’s actually important - using the arguments in the rest of your program.

The problem is that this is not always flexible. Still need all the features of argparse? Now have the best of both worlds… all the extension such as shtab or Gooey but with the simple syntax of docopt.

Installation

Latest PyPI stable release

pip install argopt

Latest development release on GitHub

Pull and install:

pip install "git+https://github.com/casperdcl/argopt.git@master#egg=argopt"

Latest Conda release

conda install -c conda-forge argopt

Changelog

The list of all changes is available on the Releases page: .

Usage

Standard docopt docstring syntax applies. Additionally, some improvements and enhancements are supported, such as type checking and default positional arguments.

'''Example programme description.
You should be able to do
    args = argopt(__doc__).parse_args()
instead of
    args = docopt(__doc__)

Usage:
    test.py [options] <x> [<y>...]

Arguments:
    <x>                   A file.
    --anarg=<a>           Description here [default: 1e3:int].
    -p PAT, --patts PAT   Or [default: None:file].
    --bar=<b>             Another [default: something] should
                          auto-wrap something in quotes and assume str.
    -f, --force           Force.
'''
from argopt import argopt
__version__ = "0.1.2-3.4"


parser = argopt(__doc__, version=__version__)
args = parser.parse_args()
if args.force:
    print(args)
else:
    print(args.x)

For comparison, the docopt equivalent would be:

'''Example programme description.

Usage:
    test.py [options] <x> [<y>...]

Arguments:
    <x>                   A file.
    --anarg=<a>           int, Description here [default: 1e3].
    -p PAT, --patts PAT   file, Or (default: None).
    --bar=<b>             str, Another [default: something] should
                          assume str like everything else.
    -f, --force           Force.
    -h, --help            Show this help message and exit.
    -v, --version         Show program's version number and exit.

'''
from docopt import docopt
__version__ = "0.1.2-3.4"


args = docopt(__doc__, version=__version__)
args["--anarg"] = int(eval(args["--anarg"]))
if args["--patts"]:
    args["--patts"] = open(args["--patts"])
if args["--force"]:
    print(args)
else:
    print(args["<x>"])

Advanced usage and examples

See the examples folder.

Documentation

def argopt(doc='', argparser=ArgumentParser,
           formatter_class=RawDescriptionHelpFormatter,
           logLevel=logging.NOTSET, **_kwargs):
  """
  Note that `docopt` supports neither type specifiers nor default
  positional arguments. We support both here.

  Parameters
  ----------
  doc  : docopt compatible, with optional type specifiers
      [default: '':str]
  argparser  : Argument parser class [default: argparse.ArgumentParser]
  version  : Version string [default: None:str]
  formatter_class  : [default: argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter]
  logLevel  : [default: logging.NOTSET]
  _kwargs  : any `argparser` initialiser arguments
      N.B.: `prog`, `description`, and `epilog` are automatically
      inferred if not `None`

  Returns
  -------
  out  : argparser object (default: argparse.ArgumentParser)

  Usage
  -----
  Extension syntax example: [default: 1e3:int].

  You should be able to do
      parser = argopt(__doc__)
      args   = parser.parse_args()
  instead of
      args = docopt(__doc__)

  TODO
  ----
  add_argument_group
  add_mutually_exclusive_group
  (better) subparser support
  (docopt extension) action choices
  (docopt extension) action count
  """

Casper da Costa-Luis (casperdcl )

We are grateful for all .

Metadata

Release files for argopt 0.9.1

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for argopt 0.9.1
File	Size	Uploaded
argopt-0.9.1.tar.gz	22.5 kB	Mar 21, 2025	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for argopt 0.9.1
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
argopt-0.9.1-py3-none-any.whl 13.9 kB Mar 21, 2025	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 36.4 kB

Release files / argopt-0.9.1.tar.gz

Download URL	argopt-0.9.1.tar.gz
Size	22.5 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`29780679f4ff620ffbc897c74415bf99a80fb61c26afdb10fe7aac887efb770e`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`a38cf1dbbb7ca1b6bdfebd8b3ae1d44f099c5678a1592f1562547037e76330d4`
Upload date	Mar 21, 2025
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	Yes
Uploaded via	`twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.13.2`

Release files / argopt-0.9.1-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	argopt-0.9.1-py3-none-any.whl
Size	13.9 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`cc78a0e6908c410f2deb927fb073cbfa377cc815d16abc067b72e529619be8a9`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`91a752e83cb21fdbdec2c931285d9e045aa7a07c641d58ea06b24f17944ffef2`
Upload date	Mar 21, 2025
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	Yes
Uploaded via	`twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.13.2`