ask-shell 0.9.1

CLIs with prompts, shell runs, and testable flows

ask-shell

Python library for CLIs that use interactive prompts, subprocess runs with Rich output, and test helpers so the same flows run in tests without a TTY.

• Install: uv add ask-shell or pip install ask-shell (Python 3.13+)
• Docs: GitHub Pages

What it provides

• ask: Prompts (confirm, text, select list/dict, single and multiple choice) built on questionary, with Rich styling
• shell: Run shell commands via run, run_and_wait, and run_pool; prefixed live output, optional log dirs, retries, and interrupt handling
• console: Rich console and progress utilities; configure_logging(app) wires a Typer app to Rich logging (handler, command decorator, optional secret hiding)
• shell_events: Callbacks for run lifecycle (before/after, stdout/stderr) for custom handling
• AskShellSettings: Paths and options (e.g. run log directory); plug into your config or env

Quick example

from ask_shell import ask, shell

if ask.confirm("Run the script?", default=True):
    name = ask.text("Name:", default="world")
    shell.run_and_wait(f"echo Hello, {name}")

Testing

Use question_patcher to feed fixed responses to prompts, or raise_on_question to fail fast when a prompt is hit. Both are context managers; see the ask API docs for details.

from ask_shell import ask
from ask_shell.ask import question_patcher

with question_patcher(responses=["y", "myname"]):
    assert ask.confirm("Run?")
    assert ask.text("Name:") == "myname"

License

MIT. See LICENSE.