---
id: clint
version: "0.5.1"
license: ISC
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: abandoned
---

# clint — Python Command Line Interface Tools

License: permissive · Maintenance: abandoned · Downloads: 341.1K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Clint is a command-line interface toolkit that bundles utilities for text styling, colored output, progress bars, and argument handling. It detects whether the terminal is a TTY and automatically disables colors when output is piped, and provides context managers for indentation and email-style quoting. The package includes a column printer that auto-detects console width, an iterator-based progress bar, and helpers for reading piped input and managing application configuration directories.

The package was last released on 2015-08-25 and is now abandoned; its repository is archived. It targets Python 2.6, 2.7, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4, making it unsuitable for modern Python environments without significant testing and potential fixes. While it has no runtime dependencies, the lack of maintenance means bugs and compatibility issues are unlikely to be addressed.

Use it for:

- Add colored and indented text output to legacy Python command-line scripts.
- Display progress bars in CLI tools that iterate over collections or long-running operations.
- Format tabular data in terminal output with automatic column width detection and word wrapping.
- Handle command-line arguments and piped input in simple CLI applications without external dependencies.
- Store and retrieve application configuration files in platform-specific user directories.

## Worth the install?

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

Clint provides command-line interface utilities for text formatting, colored output, progress bars, and argument handling in terminal applications.

No. Clint is abandoned (last release 2015-08-25, repository archived) and targets obsolete Python versions. While it has no runtime dependencies and no known vulnerabilities, the lack of maintenance means it will not work reliably on modern Python without significant effort. For new projects, use maintained alternatives instead.

## Install

pip install clint
uv add clint
poetry add clint

## Installing clint

Before you install: High install friction due to the package being abandoned since 2015 with no recent maintenance. The repository is archived and the last commit was in 2023, but the actual package release is from 2015. No runtime dependencies, but the codebase targets Python 2.6–2.7 and Python 3.1–3.4, which are now obsolete.

License in practice: ISC License is permissive and imposes minimal restrictions. You can use, modify, and distribute clint freely in commercial and private projects provided you retain the copyright notice.

Quickstart:

from clint.textui import puts, indent, colored

puts('normal text')
with indent(4):
    puts('indented text')
puts(colored.red('colored text'))

Targets Python 2.6, 2.7, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4; compatibility with modern Python versions is uncertain and untested.

Verify before relying:

- Whether clint actually works on modern Python versions despite classifiers only listing up to 3.4.
- Whether the package has known issues or breaking changes when used with current terminal emulators or piping scenarios.
- Active community or alternative maintained forks that provide similar functionality.

## Package facts

- License: ISC (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: high
- Maintenance: abandoned
- Downloads: 341.1K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

cli colors and formatting, command line text styling, terminal progress bars, console output formatting, command line argument parsing, terminal indentation and quotes, colored console text, legacy, abandoned, cli-tools

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