interrogate
Interrogate a codebase for docstring coverage.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. Interrogate is a lightweight, actively maintained tool with no known vulnerabilities, permissive licensing, and low install friction. It solves a real problem—measuring and enforcing docstring coverage—with a straightforward CLI and CI/CD integration. Install it if you want to track or enforce documentation standards in your Python projects.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.8 or above.
- Optional PNG badge generation requires system libraries (Visual C++ on Windows, cairo/libffi on macOS, cairo/python3-dev/libffi-dev on Linux).
- Low install friction with six lightweight runtime dependencies (attrs, click, colorama, py, tabulate, tomli).
License · maintenance · safety
permissive license (permissive) — Licensed under MIT (permissive), allowing use in most projects without restriction.
last release 2024-04-07 (859 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-03 · 673 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 1,536,469 downloads/mo, #3,797 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
$ pip install interrogate
$ interrogate /path/to/project
RESULT: PASSED (minimum: 80.0%, actual: 100.0%)- Whether the tool integrates with common CI/CD platforms beyond basic exit-code reporting.
- Performance characteristics on very large codebases (number of files/lines where slowdown becomes noticeable).
- Whether custom docstring formats or non-standard documentation patterns are recognized.
What it is and what it does
Interrogate is a command-line tool that analyzes Python source code to measure how thoroughly it is documented with docstrings. It scans modules, classes, functions, and methods to identify which have docstrings and which do not, then reports coverage as a percentage. The tool is designed to integrate into CI/CD pipelines to enforce documentation standards on new code and to assess code quality and maintainability in existing projects.
The package depends on click for CLI handling, colorama for colored output, tabulate for formatted reporting, attrs for data structures, py for filesystem utilities, and tomli for configuration parsing. It can generate SVG coverage badges by default, with optional PNG output available through an extras install (though PNG generation requires additional system libraries). The tool supports configuration via pyproject.toml or setup.cfg files.
Use it for
- Enforce minimum docstring coverage thresholds in CI/CD pipelines to prevent undocumented code from being merged.
- Audit an unfamiliar codebase to assess documentation quality as part of code review or onboarding.
- Generate and display docstring coverage badges in project README or documentation sites.
- Track documentation coverage trends over time by running interrogate in regular builds.
- Identify specific undocumented functions and classes with verbose output for targeted documentation efforts.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
Interrogate is a lightweight, actively maintained tool with no known vulnerabilities, permissive licensing, and low install friction. It solves a real problem—measuring and enforcing docstring coverage—with a straightforward CLI and CI/CD integration. Install it if you want to track or enforce documentation standards in your Python projects.
Install
interrogate on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction with six lightweight runtime dependencies (attrs, click, colorama, py, tabulate, tomli). Actively maintained as of August 2026 with stable production status.
Requires Python 3.8 or above. Optional PNG badge generation requires system libraries (Visual C++ on Windows, cairo/libffi on macOS, cairo/python3-dev/libffi-dev on Linux).
License in practice
Licensed under MIT (permissive), allowing use in most projects without restriction.
Quickstart
$ pip install interrogate
$ interrogate /path/to/project
RESULT: PASSED (minimum: 80.0%, actual: 100.0%)Verify before relying
- Whether the tool integrates with common CI/CD platforms beyond basic exit-code reporting.
- Performance characteristics on very large codebases (number of files/lines where slowdown becomes noticeable).
- Whether custom docstring formats or non-standard documentation patterns are recognized.
Package facts
| License | permissive license permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.8 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 6 packagesattrsclickcoloramapytabulatetomli |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 859 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 1,536,469 / month, #3,797 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableIntended Audience :: DevelopersLicense :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseNatural Language :: EnglishOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9Topic :: Software Development :: DocumentationTopic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python ModulesTopic :: Software Development :: Quality Assurance |
Evidence: interrogate-1.7.0-py3-none-any.whl
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