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

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:

// Check the new help
$ python main.py --help

Usage: main.py [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  Awesome CLI user manager.

Options:
  --install-completion  Install completion for the current shell.
  --show-completion     Show completion for the current shell, to copy it or customize the installation.
  --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 create
$ python 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 delete
$ python 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-all
$ python 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 init
$ python main.py init --help

Usage: main.py init [OPTIONS]

  Initialize the users database.

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

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

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:

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

// Notice it uses the help passed to @app.command()
Usage: main.py [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --install-completion  Install completion for the current shell.
  --show-completion     Show completion for the current shell, to copy
                        it or customize the installation.
  --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."