cliss 1.1.5

Write type-annotated Python functions, get a full CLI — automatic `--help`, validation, async support, and zero dependencies

cliss — Lightweight framework for building CLI applications

Write type-annotated Python functions, get a full CLI — automatic --help, validation, async support, and zero dependencies.

🚀 Quick Start

pip install cliss                    # Python 3.10+

from cliss import CLI

cli = CLI(name="todo", description="Task manager", version="1.0.0")

@cli.command()
def add(task: str, priority: int = 1, done: bool = False):
    """Add a task."""
    status = "✓" if done else "○"
    return f"[{status}] {task} (priority: {priority})"

cli()

📋 Commands & Features

@cli.command() — Define commands from functions

@cli.command()
def fetch(url: str, retries: int = 3):
    """Download from URL with retries"""
    return f"Fetched {url} (retries: {retries})"

@cli.argument() — Customize argument flags

Use @cli.argument() above @cli.command() to customize flags, help text, and behavior for individual parameters without needing the Argument class.

@cli.argument("-v", "--verbose", help="Enable verbose output")
@cli.argument("-r", "--retries", type=int, help="Number of retries")
@cli.command()
def fetch(url: str, verbose: bool = False, retries: int = 3):
    """Download from URL"""
    return f"Fetched {url} (retries: {retries})"

Type → CLI mapping

Function signature	CLI argument
name: str	Positional name
count: int = 1	--count (default: 1)
verbose: bool = False	--verbose / --no-verbose
mode: str = None	--mode (default: None)

Boolean flag behavior

Function signature	Help display	Usage
flag: bool	--flag, --no-flag (required)	--flag or --no-flag
flag: bool = False	--flag (default: disabled)	--flag enables, --no-flag also works
flag: bool = True	--no-flag (default: enabled)	--no-flag disables, --flag also works

Command groups

remote = cli.group("remote", "Manage remotes")

@remote.command()
def add(name: str, url: str):
    return f"Added remote {name}"

Async support

@cli.command()
async def fetch(url: str, retries: int = 3):
    return f"Fetched {url} (retries: {retries})"

Manual argument declaration

from cliss import Argument

@cli.command()
def convert(
    input: str,
    output: str,
    format: Argument("--format", "-f", choices=["json", "csv"], default="json")
):
    return f"Converted {input} → {output}.{format}"

🎨 CLI Configuration

cli = CLI(
    name="myapp",                      # Program name in help
    description="Does amazing things", # Description in help
    version="2.0.0",                   # Adds --version flag
    color=False,                       # Disable ANSI colours
)

Option	Description
name	Program name in help
description	Description in help
version	Adds --version flag
usage	Custom usage string
color	Enable/disable ANSI colours (default: True)

Disable colours via environment

NO_COLOR=1 python myapp.py --help

📄 License & Acknowledgments

MIT License — Built with pure Python standard library:

Module	Purpose
sys	Argument parsing
asyncio	Async command execution
inspect	Signature introspection

Author: Fkernel653 Project: GitHub • PyPI