antimirov/cliche

A minimalistic CLI wrapper out to be the best

Cliche

Build a simple command-line interface from your functions.

Features:

• Least syntax required: you do not need to learn a "library" to use this
• keeps it DRY (Don't Repeat yourself):
  • it uses all information available like annotations, default values and docstrings... yet does not require them.
• Just decorate a function with @cli - that is it - it can now be called as CLI but also remains usable by other functions
• Standing on the shoulders of giants (i.e. it uses argparse and learnings from others) -> lightweight

Examples

Simplest Example

You want to make a calculator. You not only want its functions to be reusable, you also want it to be callable from command line.

# calculator.py
from cliche import cli

@cli
def add(a: int, b: int):
    print(a + b)

Now let's see how to use it from the command-line:

pascal@archbook:~/$ cliche calculator.py add --help

usage: cliche add [-h] a b

positional arguments:
  a           |int|
  b           |int|

optional arguments:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit

thus:

pascal@archbook:~/$ cliche calculator.py add 1 10
11

Advanced Example

from cliche import cli


@cli
def sum_or_multiply(a_number: int, b_number: int = 10, sums: bool = False):
    """ Sums or multiplies a and b

    :param a_number: the first one
    :param b_number: This parameter seems to be
    :param sums: Sums when true, otherwise multiply
    """
    if sums:
        print(a_number + b_number)
    else:
        print(a_number * b_number)

Help:

pascal@archbook:~/$ cliche calculator.py sum_or_multiply --help

usage: cliche sum_or_multiply [-h] [--b_number B_NUMBER] [--sums] a_number

Sums or multiplies a and b

positional arguments:
  a_number             |int| the first one

optional arguments:
  -h, --help           show this help message and exit
  --b_number B_NUMBER  |int| Default: 10 | This parameter seems to be
  --sums               |bool| Default: False | Sums when true, otherwise multiply

Calling it:

pascal@archbook:~/$ cliche calculator.py sum_or_multiply 1
10

pascal@archbook:~/$ cliche calculator.py sum_or_multiply --sum 1
11

pascal@archbook:~/$ cliche calculator.py sum_or_multiply --b_number 3 2
6

More examples

Check the example files here

Comparison with other CLI generators

• argparse: it is powerful, but you need a lot of code to construct an argparse CLI
• click: you need a lot of decorators to construct a CLI, and not obvious how to use it
• hug (cli): connected to a whole web framework, but gets a lot right
• python-fire: low set up, but annoying traces all the time / ugly design, does not show default values nor types
• cleo: requires too much code/objects to construct