CLI Command Parser

CLI Command Parser is a class-based CLI argument parser that defines parameters with descriptors. It provides the tools to quickly and easily get started with basic CLIs, and it scales well to support even very large and complex CLIs while remaining readable and easy to maintain.

Some of the primary goals and key features of this project:

Minimal boilerplate code is necessary to define CLI parameters and access their parsed values
Typing support for CLI parameters that can be validated via type checkers
Subcommands can inherit common parameters so they don’t need to be repeated
Easy to handle common initialization tasks for all actions / subcommands once

Example Program

from cli_command_parser import Command, Option, main

class Hello(Command):
    """Simple greeting example"""

    name = Option('-n', default='World', help='The person to say hello to')
    count = Option('-c', type=int, default=1, help='Number of times to repeat the message')

    def main(self):
        for _ in range(self.count):
            print(f'Hello {self.name}!')

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

$ hello_world.py --name Bob -c 3
Hello Bob!
Hello Bob!
Hello Bob!

$ hello_world.py -h
usage: hello_world.py [--name NAME] [--count COUNT] [--help]

Simple greeting example

Optional arguments:
  --name NAME, -n NAME        The person to say hello to (default: 'World')
  --count COUNT, -c COUNT     Number of times to repeat the message (default: 1)
  --help, -h                  Show this help message and exit

Installing CLI Command Parser

CLI Command Parser can be installed and updated via pip:

$ pip install -U cli-command-parser

There are no required dependencies. Support for formatting wide characters correctly in help text descriptions can be included by adding wcwidth to your project’s requirements, and/or by installing with optional dependencies:

$ pip install -U cli-command-parser[wcwidth]

Python Version Compatibility

Python versions 3.10 and above are currently supported. The last release of CLI Command Parser that supported 3.9 was 2025-09-27. Support for Python 3.9 officially ended on 2025-10-31.

Metadata

Release files for cli-command-parser 2026.7.4

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Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for cli-command-parser 2026.7.4
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Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for cli-command-parser 2026.7.4
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
cli_command_parser-2026.7.4-py3-none-any.whl 171.9 kB Jul 4, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 316.9 kB

Release files / cli_command_parser-2026.7.4.tar.gz

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Download URL	cli_command_parser-2026.7.4-py3-none-any.whl
Size	171.9 kB
Tags	Python 3
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