---
id: guacamole
version: "0.9.2"
license: LGPLv3
license_treatment: copyleft
maintenance: abandoned
---

# guacamole — Guacamole is an command line tool library for Python

License: copyleft · Maintenance: abandoned · Downloads: 88.9K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Guacamole is a command-line application framework that abstracts away boilerplate setup tasks. Instead of manually configuring argument parsers, setting up logging, handling internationalization, and writing crash handlers, you define command classes that inherit from guacamole.Command, implement register_arguments() and invoked() methods, and call main() to run them. The framework handles argument parsing, logging initialization, i18n features, debugging facilities, and error handling automatically.

The package supports grouping commands into complex tools and uses a recipe-based customization system (recipes, ingredients, and spices) to modify behavior. It was originally part of plainbox and extracted into a standalone library. With zero runtime dependencies and a pure-Python wheel distribution, installation is frictionless, but the project has been abandoned since 2015 with no active maintenance.

Use it for:

- Build a multi-command CLI tool (like git subcommands) without manually wiring argument parsers and dispatchers
- Create a simple command-line utility that needs logging, internationalization, and error handling out of the box
- Prototype command-line applications quickly by focusing on business logic rather than CLI infrastructure
- Organize related CLI commands into a single cohesive tool using the command grouping system

## Worth the install?

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

Guacamole provides a framework for building command-line applications with built-in support for argument parsing, logging, internationalization, and error handling.

No. While the framework is lightweight and has no dependencies, it has been abandoned for over a decade with no maintenance or Python version updates. Modern alternatives like Click, Typer, or even argparse directly are actively maintained and better suited for new projects. Use Guacamole only if maintaining legacy code that already depends on it.

## Install

pip install guacamole
uv add guacamole
poetry add guacamole

## Installing guacamole

Before you install: Installation is straightforward with no runtime dependencies. However, the project is abandoned—last release was 2015-08-06 and last commit 2022-12-26—so expect no active maintenance or support for modern Python versions.

License in practice: Licensed under LGPLv3 (copyleft), which requires derivative works to be licensed under the same terms and makes source code available to users who receive the software.

Quickstart:

pip install guacamole

import guacamole

class HelloWorld(guacamole.Command):
    def register_arguments(self, parser):
        parser.add_argument('name')
    def invoked(self, ctx):
        print("Hello {0}!".format(ctx.args.name))

HelloWorld().main(['Guacamole'], exit=False)

Project is abandoned; compatibility with Python versions after 2015 is unverified and likely problematic.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package works reliably with Python versions released after 2015
- Compatibility with modern argparse or whether it requires workarounds
- Active user base or community support despite abandonment status

## Package facts

- License: LGPLv3 (copyleft)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: abandoned
- Downloads: 88.9K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

command line application framework, cli tool builder, argparse wrapper, command line argument handling, python cli framework, subcommand dispatcher, command class framework, cli-framework, abandoned

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