Top 20 Python libraries for command-line apps
Click, Typer, Rich, tqdm, Textual and other ways to build CLIs and terminal UIs in Python
Updated · GitHub stars (stars)
Why these 20
Ranked by GitHub stars: how many developers bookmarked the project. Stars measure attention, not quality, so each row also shows forks, licence, the last push and the section of the community list it sits in. Argument parsers (Click, Typer), terminal output (Rich, tqdm, colorama) and full terminal UI frameworks (Textual, urwid) are in one list, so check the 'listed under' column. Python's built-in argparse has no repository of its own and can't be ranked, though it ships with every Python.
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1
rich
Python library for rich text and beautiful formatting in the terminal. Also provides a great `RichHandler` log handler.
57,597 stars 2,411 forkslast push 2026-06-23PythonMIT
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2
textual
A framework for building interactive user interfaces that run in the terminal and the browser.
37,497 stars 1,367 forkslast push 2026-10-09PythonMIT
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3
tqdm
Fast, extensible progress bar for loops and CLI.
31,358 stars 4,234 forkslast push 2026-10-05PythonNOASSERTION
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4
typer
Modern CLI framework that uses Python type hints. Built on Click.
20,168 stars 995 forkslast push 2026-10-15PythonMIT
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5
click
A package for creating beautiful command line interfaces in a composable way.
17,799 stars 4,680 forkslast push 2026-10-06PythonBSD-3-Clause
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6
prompt_toolkit
A library for building powerful interactive command lines.
10,601 stars 834 forkslast push 2026-10-20PythonBSD-3-Clause
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7
alive-progress
A new kind of Progress Bar, with real-time throughput, eta and very cool animations.
6,320 stars 242 forkslast push 2026-05-24PythonMIT
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8
asciimatics
A package to create full-screen text UIs (from interactive forms to ASCII animations).
4,309 stars 267 forkslast push 2026-07-04PythonApache-2.0
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9
colorama
Cross-platform colored terminal text.
3,796 stars 293 forkslast push 2026-05-13PythonBSD-3-Clause
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10
urwid
A library for creating terminal GUI applications with strong support for widgets, events, rich colors, etc.
3,025 stars 350 forkslast push 2026-10-22PythonLGPL-2.1
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11
cyclopts
Build CLIs from type-hinted functions, with docstring-based help.
1,282 stars 64 forkslast push 2026-10-22PythonApache-2.0
How it is measured
Every library in the CLI Development section of the community list vinta/awesome-python on GitHub that has a public repository, ranked by GitHub stars from the GitHub API; archived repositories are left out. Refreshed every 6 hours.
References
- vinta/awesome-python: CLI Development, GitHub community list (list text CC BY 4.0; star counts from the GitHub API). Checked 2026-10-22 08:48 UTC.
- vinta/awesome-python (CLI Development), GitHub community list, 11 tools with a public repository.
