Command Help

The same as before, you can add help for the commands in the docstrings and the CLI options.

And the typer.Typer() application receives a parameter help that you can pass with the main help text for your CLI program:

import typer_cloup as typer

app = typer.Typer(help="Awesome CLI user manager.")


@app.command()
def create(username: str):
    """
    Create a new user with USERNAME.
    """
    typer.echo(f"Creating user: {username}")


@app.command()
def delete(
    username: str,
    force: bool = typer.Option(
        ...,
        prompt="Are you sure you want to delete the user?",
        help="Force deletion without confirmation.",
    ),
):
    """
    Delete a user with USERNAME.

    If --force is not used, will ask for confirmation.
    """
    if force:
        typer.echo(f"Deleting user: {username}")
    else:
        typer.echo("Operation cancelled")


@app.command()
def delete_all(
    force: bool = typer.Option(
        ...,
        prompt="Are you sure you want to delete ALL users?",
        help="Force deletion without confirmation.",
    )
):
    """
    Delete ALL users in the database.

    If --force is not used, will ask for confirmation.
    """
    if force:
        typer.echo("Deleting all users")
    else:
        typer.echo("Operation cancelled")


@app.command()
def init():
    """
    Initialize the users database.
    """
    typer.echo("Initializing user database")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app()

Check it:

fast →💬 Check the new helppython main.py --help
Usage: main.py [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Awesome CLI user manager.

Options:
--help Show this message and exit.

Commands:
create Create a new user with USERNAME.
delete Delete a user with USERNAME.
delete-all Delete ALL users in the database.
init Initialize the users database.

💬 Now the commands have inline help 🎉
💬 Check the help for createpython main.py create --help
Usage: main.py create [OPTIONS] USERNAME

Create a new user with USERNAME.

Options:
--help Show this message and exit.

💬 Check the help for deletepython main.py delete --help
Usage: main.py delete [OPTIONS] USERNAME

Delete a user with USERNAME.

If --force is not used, will ask for confirmation.

Options:
--force / --no-force Force deletion without confirmation. [required]
--help Show this message and exit.

💬 Check the help for delete-allpython main.py delete-all --help
Usage: main.py delete-all [OPTIONS]

Delete ALL users in the database.

If --force is not used, will ask for confirmation.

Options:
--force / --no-force Force deletion without confirmation. [required]
--help Show this message and exit.

💬 Check the help for initpython main.py init --help
Usage: main.py init [OPTIONS]

Initialize the users database.

Options:
--help Show this message and exit.

restart ↻

Tip

typer.Typer() receives several other parameters for other things, we'll see that later.

You will also see how to use "Callbacks" later, and those include a way to add this same help message in a function docstring.

Overwrite command help

You will probably be better adding the help text as a docstring to your functions, but if for some reason you wanted to overwrite it, you can use the help function argument passed to @app.command():

import typer_cloup as typer

app = typer.Typer()


@app.command(help="Create a new user with USERNAME.")
def create(username: str):
    """
    Some internal utility function to create.
    """
    typer.echo(f"Creating user: {username}")


@app.command(help="Delete a user with USERNAME.")
def delete(username: str):
    """
    Some internal utility function to delete.
    """
    typer.echo(f"Deleting user: {username}")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app()

Check it:

fast →💬 Check the helppython main.py --help
💬 Notice it uses the help passed to @app.command()Usage: main.py [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
--help Show this message and exit.

Commands:
create Create a new user with USERNAME.
delete Delete a user with USERNAME.

💬 It uses "Create a new user with USERNAME." instead of "Some internal utility function to create."
restart ↻

Deprecate a Command

There could be cases where you have a command in your app that you need to deprecate, so that your users stop using it, even while it's still supported for a while.

You can mark it with the parameter deprecated=True:

import typer_cloup as typer

app = typer.Typer()


@app.command()
def create(username: str):
    """
    Create a user.
    """
    print(f"Creating user: {username}")


@app.command(deprecated=True)
def delete(username: str):
    """
    Delete a user.

    This is deprecated and will stop being supported soon.
    """
    print(f"Deleting user: {username}")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app()

And when you show the --help option you will see it's marked as "deprecated":

fast →python main.py --help
Usage: main.py [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
--help Show this message and exit.

Commands:
create Create a user.
delete (Deprecated) Delete a user.

restart ↻

And if you check the --help for the deprecated command (in this example, the command delete), it also shows it as deprecated:

fast →python main.py delete --help
Usage: main.py delete [OPTIONS] USERNAME

(DEPRECATED) Delete a user.

This is deprecated and will stop being supported soon.

Arguments:
USERNAME [required]

Options:
--help Show this message and exit.

restart ↻