pick
Pick an option in the terminal with a simple GUI
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. pick is a mature, actively maintained library with no known vulnerabilities, permissive MIT licensing, and low install friction. It solves a specific, common problem—interactive terminal selection—cleanly and with minimal dependencies. Install it if you need to add keyboard-driven menu selection to a CLI application.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- On Windows, windows-curses is required as a runtime dependency; on Unix-like systems, curses is typically built-in.
- Low install friction with a single optional runtime dependency (windows-curses).
- Active maintenance as of 2026-02-28, supporting Python 3.8 through 3.14.
License · maintenance · safety
MIT (permissive) — MIT license permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; you may use, modify, and distribute pick freely provided you include the license notice.
last release 2026-02-28 (167 days)
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 539,545 downloads/mo, #6,108 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
$ pip install pick
from pick import pick
title = 'Choose an option: '
options = ['Option A', 'Option B', 'Option C']
selected_option, index = pick(options, title)
print(selected_option, index)- Whether the optional blessed backend offers performance or feature advantages over the default curses backend
- Compatibility with non-ASCII characters and multi-byte encodings in terminal environments
What it is and what it does
pick is a lightweight Python library for building interactive terminal menus where users select from a list of options using keyboard controls. It wraps the curses library (or optionally blessed) to handle terminal rendering and input, letting you present a list of choices and capture the user's selection—either a single pick or multiple selections if multiselect mode is enabled. The library handles the low-level terminal state management, so you only need to pass a list of options and a title, then read back which item was chosen and its index.
The package is designed for CLI applications that need simple, interactive user input without external GUI frameworks. It supports customization like custom selection indicators, default starting positions, minimum selection counts for multiselect mode, and integration with existing curses applications via a screen object parameter. On Windows, it depends on windows-curses to provide the curses interface; on Unix-like systems, curses is typically available in the standard library.
Use it for
- Build a CLI tool that prompts users to select a single item from a list of options
- Create an interactive menu in a terminal application where users can pick multiple items with space-bar selection
- Add a terminal-based configuration wizard that guides users through choices with keyboard navigation
- Integrate a selection dialog into an existing curses-based terminal application
- Implement a command-line tool that lets users choose from dynamically generated option lists
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
pick is a mature, actively maintained library with no known vulnerabilities, permissive MIT licensing, and low install friction. It solves a specific, common problem—interactive terminal selection—cleanly and with minimal dependencies. Install it if you need to add keyboard-driven menu selection to a CLI application.
Install
pick on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction with a single optional runtime dependency (windows-curses). Active maintenance as of 2026-02-28, supporting Python 3.8 through 3.14.
On Windows, windows-curses is required as a runtime dependency; on Unix-like systems, curses is typically built-in.
License in practice
MIT license permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; you may use, modify, and distribute pick freely provided you include the license notice.
Quickstart
$ pip install pick
from pick import pick
title = 'Choose an option: '
options = ['Option A', 'Option B', 'Option C']
selected_option, index = pick(options, title)
print(selected_option, index)Verify before relying
- Whether the optional blessed backend offers performance or feature advantages over the default curses backend
- Compatibility with non-ASCII characters and multi-byte encodings in terminal environments
Package facts
| License | MIT permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.8 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 1 packagewindows-curses |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 167 days since the last release |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 539,545 / month, #6,108 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | License :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9 |
Evidence: pick-2.6.0-py3-none-any.whl
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See also simple-term-menu · blessed · bullet · textual-autocomplete · pythondialog · portpicker · streamlit-option-menu · pyfzf · iterfzf · questo