clize: Turn functions into command-line interfaces

Clize is an argument parser for Python. You can use Clize as an alternative to argparse if you want an even easier way to create command-line interfaces.

With Clize, you can:

  • Create command-line interfaces by creating functions and passing them to clize.run.

  • Enjoy a CLI automatically created from your functions’ parameters.

  • Bring your users familiar --help messages generated from your docstrings.

  • Reuse functionality across multiple commands using decorators.

  • Extend Clize with new parameter behavior.

Here’s an example:

from clize import run

def hello_world(name=None, *, no_capitalize=False):
    """Greets the world or the given name.

    :param name: If specified, only greet this person.
    :param no_capitalize: Don't capitalize the given name.
    """
    if name:
        if not no_capitalize:
            name = name.title()
        return 'Hello {0}!'.format(name)
    return 'Hello world!'

if __name__ == '__main__':
    run(hello_world)

run takes the function and automatically produces a command-line interface for it:

$ python3 -m pip install --user clize
$ python3 examples/hello.py --help
Usage: examples/hello.py [OPTIONS] [name]

Greets the world or the given name.

Positional arguments:
  name              If specified, only greet this person.

Options:
  --no-capitalize   Don't capitalize the give name.

Other actions:
  -h, --help        Show the help
$ python hello.py
Hello world!
$ python hello.py john
Hello John!
$ python hello.py dave --no-capitalize
Hello dave!

While we use Python 3 syntax in this example, Clize is fully compatible with Python 2.7.

Interested?

Here is the full table of contents:

About Clize

Getting started

Guides

The user reference lists all capabilities of each kind of parameter. The API reference comes in handy if you’re extending clize.

Reference

Information on how Clize is organized as a project.

Project documentation