cycler
Composable style cycles
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you need style cycling for visualization or batch property iteration. It has zero runtime dependencies, low install friction, and a permissive license. The aging maintenance status (last release 2023-10-07) is not a blocker for a stable, narrow-scope utility, but verify that the package's scope matches your use case before relying on it for new features.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.8 or later.
- Low install friction with no runtime dependencies.
- Maintenance is aging—last release was over 1000 days ago (2023-10-07), though the repository remains active with a recent commit (2025-02-27) and no archived status.
License · maintenance · safety
permissive license (permissive) — BSD License (permissive). You may use, modify, and distribute this package freely in commercial and open-source projects, provided you retain the copyright notice and disclaimer.
last release 2023-10-07 (1042 days) · last repo commit 2025-02-27 · 82 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 176,918,933 downloads/mo, #237 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install cycler
from cycler import cycler
color_cycle = cycler(color=['red', 'blue', 'green'])
for props in color_cycle:
print(props)- Whether cycler is actively maintained or in maintenance-only mode despite the recent commit.
- Real-world usage patterns beyond matplotlib integration to assess whether the package solves problems outside plotting.
What it is and what it does
Cycler is a small, dependency-free library for composing and iterating through cycles of style properties. It was designed to support matplotlib's property cycling but works as a standalone utility for any application that needs to cycle through sets of keyword arguments or properties in a structured way.
The package lets you define cycles (e.g., colors, line styles, markers) and compose them together, then iterate through the resulting combinations in a predictable order. It has no runtime dependencies and supports Python 3.8 and later. The library is stable and widely used as a transitive dependency in the scientific Python ecosystem, though active development appears limited.
Use it for
- Cycling through colors and line styles when plotting multiple series in matplotlib or similar visualization libraries.
- Generating repeating sequences of keyword arguments for batch processing or configuration management.
- Building reusable style templates that can be composed and iterated in a deterministic order.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you need style cycling for visualization or batch property iteration.
It has zero runtime dependencies, low install friction, and a permissive license. The aging maintenance status (last release 2023-10-07) is not a blocker for a stable, narrow-scope utility, but verify that the package's scope matches your use case before relying on it for new features.
Install
cycler on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction with no runtime dependencies. Maintenance is aging—last release was over 1000 days ago (2023-10-07), though the repository remains active with a recent commit (2025-02-27) and no archived status.
Requires Python 3.8 or later.
License in practice
BSD License (permissive). You may use, modify, and distribute this package freely in commercial and open-source projects, provided you retain the copyright notice and disclaimer.
Quickstart
pip install cycler
from cycler import cycler
color_cycle = cycler(color=['red', 'blue', 'green'])
for props in color_cycle:
print(props)Verify before relying
- Whether cycler is actively maintained or in maintenance-only mode despite the recent commit.
- Real-world usage patterns beyond matplotlib integration to assess whether the package solves problems outside plotting.
Package facts
| License | permissive license permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.8 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Aging 1,042 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 176,918,933 / month, #237 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 4 - BetaLicense :: OSI Approved :: BSD LicenseProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: OnlyProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9 |
Evidence: cycler-0.12.1-py3-none-any.whl
Tags
Let your AI agent find packages like this
Example. Real query, live index.
You found this page by searching. An agent finds it by wishing: SkillFed indexes 14,416 PyPI packages by what they can do, searchable in plain language.
wish › “style cycle iteration”
- cyclerCycler provides composable style cycles for iterating through sets of…
- aiostreamaiostream provides composable stream operators for building…
- rainflowRainflow implements the ASTM E1049-85 rainflow cycle counting…
Give your agent the search over MCP, or paste the wish link into any chat.
Similar packages
LovelyPlots provides matplotlib style sheets that format scientific plots for papers, theses, and presentations while keeping them editable in Adobe Illustrator and compatible with LaTeX documents.
However, note the dormant maintenance status: the last release was 891 days ago, so verify compatibility with your current matplotlib version before relying on it for…
Colorcet provides a collection of perceptually uniform colormaps designed for scientific visualization with Python plotting libraries like matplotlib, bokeh, holoviews, and datashader.
Provides a collection of Matplotlib style sheets designed to format scientific figures for papers, presentations, and theses with publication-ready appearance.
Provides access to all 165 ColorBrewer2.org color maps (sequential, diverging, qualitative) as Python objects with RGB, hex, and matplotlib-compatible color formats.
However, consider Palettable instead if you want active maintenance and ongoing feature updates—brewer2mpl has not been updated since 2014 and is explicitly…
Palettable provides a library of color palettes for Python that can be used directly or integrated with matplotlib to customize plots and supply colors for web applications.
Install it if you want to avoid color-picking overhead.
Detects and reports cyclic relationships in a directed graph by checking whether adding a new edge would create a cycle.
See also staticmap · cmap · py-import-cycles · pygments-styles