How can I use rich formatting with argparse ?

[aahnik]

See the code below:

    main_parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
        description='CLI Tool to do something',
        epilog='''To learn how to use an action use that.
        \n\nFor tutorials and documentation visit https://git.io/JL1iI ''', formatter_class=RawTextHelpFormatter)

    main_parser.add_argument('-l', '--loud',
                             help='increase output verbosity',
                             action='store_true')

I am creating an argument parser with argparse. I want rich text for help, description and epilogs.

how can i use rich along with argparse ?

[netllama]

I would also be interested in using rich to render argparse output, even if it was only the help text.

[xgrg]

Did you try to override ArgumentParser's _print_message function? As in this example:

class AParser(argparse.ArgumentParser):
    def _print_message(self, message, file=None):
        if message:
            if file is None:
                from rich import print
                print(message)
            else:
                file.write(message)

main_parser = AParser(description='CLI Tool to do something', ...)

[aahnik]

I will try this out.

By the way, I stopped using argparse and currently using typer for my current and upcoming projects.

[Alyetama]

Doesn't work (rich=10.6.0).

  File "/Users/user/miniforge3/lib/python3.9/argparse.py", line 2548, in print_help
    self._print_message(self.format_help(), file)
  File "/Users/user/miniforge3/lib/python3.9/argparse.py", line 2525, in format_help
    formatter.add_arguments(action_group._group_actions)
  File "/Users/user/miniforge3/lib/python3.9/argparse.py", line 277, in add_arguments
    self.add_argument(action)
  File "/Users/user/miniforge3/lib/python3.9/argparse.py", line 267, in add_argument
    invocation_length = max(map(len, invocations))
TypeError: object of type 'NoneType' has no len()

[epi052]

class MuhParser(argparse.ArgumentParser):
    def _print_message(self, message: str, file: Optional[IO[str]] = None) -> None:
        rich.print(message, file=file)

This works for me @aahnik

[yashrathi-git]

Yes, I would love if rich could work with click to give colored help messages like poetry

[Raphasha27]

Rich provides RichHelpFormatter that integrates with argparse:

import argparse
from rich.console import Console
from rich.table import Table
from rich_argparse import RichHelpFormatter

# Option 1: Use rich_argparse library (recommended)
# pip install rich-argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(formatter_class=RichHelpFormatter)
parser.add_argument("--verbose", "-v", action="store_true", help="Enable verbose output")
parser.parse_args()

# Option 2: Manual rich formatting in argparse help
class CustomRichFormatter(argparse.HelpFormatter):
    def format_help(self):
        console = Console()
        table = Table(title="Usage", show_header=False)
        table.add_column("", style="cyan")
        table.add_column("", style="white")
        for action in self._actions:
            if action.option_strings:
                table.add_row(", ".join(action.option_strings), action.help or "")
        with console.capture() as capture:
            console.print(table)
        return capture.get()

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(formatter_class=CustomRichFormatter)

For click instead of argparse (recommended), use Rich's click integration directly:

# pip install rich-click
import rich_click

rich_click.COMMAND_GROUPS = {
    "mycli": [
        {"name": "Main Commands", "commands": ["run", "serve"]},
    ]
}

# Then use regular click - rich-click handles the formatting
import click

@click.command()
@click.option("--verbose", "-v", is_flag=True)
def run(verbose):
    pass

rich_click gives you colored help output, command grouping, and styled tables without modifying your CLI code.