Esprit

A minimal terminal-based spreadsheet editor built with Python and Textual. Create, edit, and manage structured data tables with typed columns directly in your terminal.

Sometimes you want to take notes in a table.

Features

• Terminal UI: Fast, keyboard-driven interface
• Typed Columns: String, Number, Boolean, and URL column types
• Row Operations: Insert, delete, and move rows with keyboard shortcuts
• JSON Storage: Simple, readable JSON file format

Installation

Install esprit from PyPI:

pip install esprit

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/mkaz/esprit.git
cd esprit
pip install .

Requirements

• Python 3.10 or higher

Usage

Starting Esprit

Launch with a new or existing file:

# Create or open a spreadsheet
esprit mydata.json

# Start with default empty spreadsheet
esprit

On first launch with a new file, you'll see the initialization dialog where you can:

• Set the spreadsheet title
• Define columns with names and types
• Add or remove columns as needed

Column Types

• String: Plain text values
• Number: Numeric values with comma formatting
• Boolean: True/False values displayed as ✓/✗
• URL: Links with title and URL (format: Title | https://example.com)

Keyboard Shortcuts

Navigation

• Arrow Keys: Move between cells

Editing

• Enter: Edit current cell
• Escape: Cancel editing

Row Operations

• Ctrl+I: Insert empty row above current
• Ctrl+K: Delete current row
• Alt+Up: Move current row up
• Alt+Down: Move current row down

File Operations

• Ctrl+S: Save spreadsheet
• Ctrl+Q: Quit (prompts to save if unsaved changes)

Special

• Ctrl+Enter: Open URL in browser (when on URL column cell)

File Format

Esprit saves spreadsheets as JSON files:

{
  "metadata": {
    "title": "My Spreadsheet",
    "columns": [
      {"name": "Name", "type": "string"},
      {"name": "Amount", "type": "number"},
      {"name": "Active", "type": "boolean"},
      {"name": "Website", "type": "url"}
    ]
  },
  "rows": 20,
  "cols": 4,
  "cells": {
    "0,0": "Alice",
    "0,1": 1500,
    "0,2": true,
    "0,3": {"title": "Example", "url": "https://example.com"}
  }
}

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please open an issue or pull request on GitHub.

Links

• GitHub: https://github.com/mkaz/esprit
• PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/esprit/
• Issues: https://github.com/mkaz/esprit/issues