CLI Development (Typer + Rich) Skill

CLI Development (Typer + Rich)

Consult python3-core for standing defaults. Load python3-testing for test patterns.

Standards

Annotated[Type, typer.Option(...)] syntax for all CLI params
rich_help_panel to group options
Rich emoji tokens (:white_check_mark:) not Unicode literals
Architecture: CLI (Typer) → Business Logic → Services → Display (Rich)
uv run <script> over python3 <script>
Factory pattern for dependency injection

App Structure

import typer
from rich.console import Console

app = typer.Typer()
console = Console()

@app.command()
def process(
    input_file: Annotated[Path, typer.Argument(help="Input file")],
    verbose: Annotated[bool, typer.Option("--verbose", "-v")] = False,
) -> None:
    """Process input file."""
    ...

Rich Width Handling

from rich.console import Console
from rich.table import Table
from rich.measure import Measurement

def get_table_width(table: Table) -> int:
    temp = Console(width=9999)
    m = Measurement.get(temp, temp.options, table)
    return int(m.maximum)

Testing

from typer.testing import CliRunner

runner = CliRunner()

def test_app_runs() -> None:
    result = runner.invoke(app, ["--help"])
    assert result.exit_code == 0

Async Patterns

Use semaphores for I/O-bound CLI tasks:

import asyncio
import typer
from typing import Annotated

@app.command()
def fetch(
    urls: Annotated[list[str], typer.Argument()],
    max_concurrent: Annotated[int, typer.Option()] = 10,
) -> None:
    """Fetch multiple URLs concurrently."""
    results = asyncio.run(_fetch_all(urls, max_concurrent))
    for result in results:
        console.print(result)

async def _fetch_all(urls: list[str], limit: int) -> list[str]:
    sem = asyncio.Semaphore(limit)
    async with httpx.AsyncClient() as client:
        tasks = [_fetch_one(client, u, sem) for u in urls]
        return await asyncio.gather(*tasks)

PEP 723 Shebang

#!/usr/bin/env -S uv --quiet run --active --script
# /// script
# requires-python = ">=3.11"
# dependencies = ["typer>=0.21", "rich>=13.0"]
# ///

References

references/typer-app-and-commands.md, references/typer-parameters.md, references/typer-parameter-types.md, references/typer-advanced-patterns.md, references/typer-subcommands.md, references/typer-testing.md — Typer commands, arguments, parameters, subcommands
references/rich-console-and-markup.md, references/rich-renderables.md, references/rich-text-and-syntax.md, references/rich-advanced-patterns.md, references/rich-progress-and-live.md, references/rich-logging-and-tracebacks.md — Rich tables, panels, progress, live displays
references/typer-rich-non-tty-patterns.md, references/typer-rich-tables.md, references/typer-rich-exception-handling.md, references/typer-rich-testing-patterns.md — Typer+Rich integration, non-TTY, width, testing

Related Skills

Load python-engineering:textual when the task involves Textual TUI widgets, screen stack, CSS styling, reactive attributes, Pilot testing, or background workers.

Load python-engineering:typer when the task is focused on Typer commands, parameter configuration, subcommand composition, or Typer-specific documentation.

Load python-engineering:typer-and-rich when the task involves Rich table rendering in non-TTY contexts, Typer/Rich integration pitfalls, or correctness review of CLI output handling.

Assets

assets/python-cli-demo.py — complete working example
assets/typer_examples/index.md — working scripts demonstrating non-TTY display solutions (Panel/Table width, wrapping, cropping)
assets/nested-typer-exceptions/ — runnable demos of Typer nested exception anti-patterns and fixes

Agent Skills: CLI Development (Typer + Rich)

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Skill Files