graphtty
Turn any directed graph into colored ASCII art for your terminal
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. graphtty is a lightweight, dependency-free tool for terminal graph visualization with active maintenance, permissive licensing, and no known vulnerabilities. Install it if you need to display directed graphs in the terminal—it's particularly useful for agent workflows and CLI-based tools. The early version number (0.1.8) suggests the API may evolve, so pin the version if stability is critical.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.11 or later.
- Low friction install with no runtime dependencies.
- Active maintenance as of August 2026, though the project is relatively young (first released February 2026).
License · maintenance · safety
MIT (permissive) — MIT license permits unrestricted use, modification, and distribution with minimal obligations.
last release 2026-02-15 (180 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-06 · 13 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 404,924 downloads/mo, #6,910 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install graphtty
from graphtty import render
graph = {
"nodes": [{"id": "a", "name": "Start", "type": "entry"}],
"edges": []
}
print(render(graph))- Whether the package handles very large graphs (thousands of nodes) without performance degradation beyond the benchmarked samples.
- Stability and API compatibility guarantees given the 0.1.x version number and recent first release.
What it is and what it does
graphtty converts a directed graph structure (nodes and edges) into formatted ASCII art suitable for terminal display. You define your graph as a JSON-like dictionary with node and edge lists, then call render() to get a text representation with box-drawing characters, optional labels, and color themes. It's designed for visualizing workflows, agent pipelines, and decision trees in the terminal without requiring external graphing libraries.
The package includes a CLI tool for rendering graphs from JSON files, supports nested subgraphs and node descriptions, and offers ten built-in color themes (monokai, ocean, dracula, nord, and others). It uses a custom Sugiyama-style layout engine and is optimized for fast rendering—the benchmarks show typical graphs render in under a millisecond.
Use it for
- Visualize AI agent workflows and decision trees directly in the terminal during development and debugging.
- Display ETL pipelines, data processing workflows, and orchestration graphs in CLI tools and dashboards.
- Generate ASCII diagrams of system architectures and component dependencies for documentation and terminal output.
- Render graph structures in real-time monitoring or inspection tools without pulling in heavy graphing dependencies.
- Create reproducible, version-controllable graph visualizations by storing graph definitions as JSON.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
graphtty is a lightweight, dependency-free tool for terminal graph visualization with active maintenance, permissive licensing, and no known vulnerabilities. Install it if you need to display directed graphs in the terminal—it's particularly useful for agent workflows and CLI-based tools. The early version number (0.1.8) suggests the API may evolve, so pin the version if stability is critical.
Install
graphtty on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction install with no runtime dependencies. Active maintenance as of August 2026, though the project is relatively young (first released February 2026).
Requires Python 3.11 or later.
License in practice
MIT license permits unrestricted use, modification, and distribution with minimal obligations.
Quickstart
pip install graphtty
from graphtty import render
graph = {
"nodes": [{"id": "a", "name": "Start", "type": "entry"}],
"edges": []
}
print(render(graph))Verify before relying
- Whether the package handles very large graphs (thousands of nodes) without performance degradation beyond the benchmarked samples.
- Stability and API compatibility guarantees given the 0.1.x version number and recent first release.
Package facts
| License | MIT permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.11 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 180 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 404,924 / month, #6,910 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Intended Audience :: DevelopersProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Topic :: Software Development :: Build Tools |
Evidence: graphtty-0.1.8-py3-none-any.whl
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