---
id: click-help-colors
version: "0.9.4"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: aging
---

# click-help-colors — Colorization of help messages in Click

License: permissive · Maintenance: aging · Downloads: 1.3M/mo

## What it is and what it does

click-help-colors is a small extension for Click that replaces the default help and version output classes with color-aware alternatives. It lets you assign terminal colors (yellow, green, blue, cyan, red, white, bright_black, etc.) to help headers, option names, and version text, either globally or per-command. You pass color names as keyword arguments to HelpColorsGroup and HelpColorsCommand decorators, or use a custom_colors dictionary to target specific options or commands individually.

The package is useful when you want CLI tools to have more visually distinct help output without building your own help formatter from scratch. It integrates directly into Click's decorator pattern, so you swap in the colored class and add color parameters—no changes to your command logic needed. The single runtime dependency is click itself.

Use it for:

- Make help text in a multi-command CLI tool easier to scan by coloring headers and options differently.
- Highlight important or dangerous options (e.g., destructive flags in red) to draw user attention.
- Customize version output colors to match your tool's branding or visual style.
- Add visual polish to internal CLI tools without maintaining a custom help formatter.
- Selectively color specific options or subcommands while leaving others unstyled.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Adds color customization to Click command-line help messages and version output, letting you style headers, options, and custom text with terminal colors.

Yes, if you maintain a Click-based CLI and want colored help output without extra complexity. The install is straightforward and the dependency footprint is minimal. However, the aging maintenance status (last release 2023-11-18, no activity in over 1000 days) means you should verify compatibility with your Click version before committing to it in production; consider it stable but not actively developed.

## Install

pip install click-help-colors
uv add click-help-colors
poetry add click-help-colors

## Installing click-help-colors

Before you install: Low friction install with a single runtime dependency (click). Maintenance status is aging—last release was 2023-11-18, over 1000 days ago, though the repository remains active and unarchived with modest community engagement (92 stars).

License in practice: MIT license is permissive; you can use this package freely in open-source and commercial projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install click-help-colors

import click
from click_help_colors import HelpColorsGroup

@click.group(cls=HelpColorsGroup, help_headers_color='yellow', help_options_color='green')
def cli():
    pass

@cli.command()
@click.option('--count', default=1, help='Some number.')
def command1(count):
    click.echo('command 1')

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package works with recent Click versions and modern Python releases, given the aging maintenance status.
- Whether color output degrades gracefully on terminals that don't support ANSI colors.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: aging
- Downloads: 1.3M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

click help text coloring, colored cli help messages, terminal color for click commands, style click help output, click command formatting, cli help text styling, colored command-line help, cli-styling, click-extension

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/click-help-colors) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/click-help-colors/)