---
id: click-spinner
version: "0.2.0"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# click-spinner — Spinner for Click

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 3.9M/mo

## What it is and what it does

Click Spinner is a lightweight terminal utility that displays an animated spinner to indicate ongoing work when you cannot predict how long an operation will take. It wraps your code in a context manager, showing a simple animated character sequence while the block executes, then clearing it when done.

The package has no runtime dependencies and integrates directly into CLI applications built with Click or any other framework. It's designed for cases where a progress bar is inappropriate—when you genuinely don't know the duration—and you just need to signal to the user that something is happening.

Use it for:

- Show progress during long-running API calls or network requests where duration is unpredictable.
- Indicate activity during database queries or file I/O operations in CLI tools.
- Provide visual feedback during background tasks in scripts or automation workflows.
- Enhance user experience in command-line tools by replacing silent waits with animated feedback.

## Worth the install?

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

Displays a simple animated spinner in the terminal to show progress when the duration of an operation is unknown, using a context manager interface.

Yes. The package is actively maintained, has no dependencies, installs cleanly, carries a permissive license, and solves a specific, common problem in CLI development. Install it when you need terminal spinner functionality in a Python 3.8+ project.

## Install

pip install click-spinner
uv add click-spinner
poetry add click-spinner

## Installing click-spinner

Before you install: Installs with no runtime dependencies and maintains active status with recent releases, making it straightforward to add to any project.

License in practice: MIT license permits unrestricted use, modification, and distribution in both open-source and proprietary projects.

Quickstart:

pip install click-spinner

import click_spinner

with click_spinner.spinner():
    # long-running operation here
    pass

Requires Python 3.8 or later; for Python <3.8, use v0.1.11.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the spinner output is compatible with all terminal types and environments (Windows, macOS, Linux).
- Performance characteristics when used in high-frequency or long-running operations.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 3.9M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

terminal spinner, progress indicator cli, loading animation, command line spinner, cli progress display, terminal loading indicator, cli-ui, progress-indicator

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