CLI Options with Help

You already saw how to add a help text for CLI arguments with the help parameter.

Let's now do the same for CLI options:

import typer_cloup as typer


def main(
    name: str,
    lastname: str = typer.Option("", help="Last name of person to greet."),
    formal: bool = typer.Option(False, help="Say hi formally."),
):
    """
    Say hi to NAME, optionally with a --lastname.

    If --formal is used, say hi very formally.
    """
    if formal:
        typer.echo(f"Good day Ms. {name} {lastname}.")
    else:
        typer.echo(f"Hello {name} {lastname}")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    typer.run(main)

We are replacing the default values we had before with typer.Option().

As we no longer have a default value there, the first parameter to typer.Option() serves the same purpose of defining that default value.

So, if we had:

lastname: str = ""

now we write:

lastname: str = typer.Option("")

And both forms achieve the same: a CLI option with a default value of an empty string ("").

And then we can pass the help keyword parameter:

lastname: str = typer.Option("", help="this option does this and that")

to create the help for that CLI option.

Copy that example from above to a file main.py.

Test it:

$ python main.py --help

Usage: main.py [OPTIONS] NAME

  Say hi to NAME, optionally with a --lastname.

  If --formal is used, say hi very formally.

Arguments:
  NAME                    [required]

Options:
  --lastname TEXT         Last name of person to greet.
  --formal / --no-formal  Say hi formally.  [default: no-formal]
  --help                  Show this message and exit.

// Now you have a help text for the --lastname and --formal CLI options 🎉

Hide default from help

You can tell Typer to not show the default value in the help text with show_default=False:

import typer_cloup as typer


def main(fullname: str = typer.Option("Wade Wilson", show_default=False)):
    typer.echo(f"Hello {fullname}")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    typer.run(main)

And it will no longer show the default value in the help text:

$ python main.py

Hello Wade Wilson

// Show the help
$ python main.py --help

Usage: main.py [OPTIONS]

Options:
  --fullname TEXT
  --help           Show this message and exit.

// Notice there's no [default: Wade Wilson] 🔥

Technical Details

In Click applications the default values are hidden by default. 🙈

In Typer these default values are shown by default. 👀