poetry-plugin-shell
Poetry plugin to run subshell with virtual environment activated
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you use Poetry and want a convenient way to activate your project's virtual environment. Install friction is low, maintenance is active, and there are no known vulnerabilities. The MIT license imposes no restrictions. Install via `poetry self add poetry-plugin-shell` for the smoothest integration.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Poetry to be installed; the plugin integrates as a Poetry command extension.
- Low install friction; the package is a pure Python wheel with three straightforward runtime dependencies (pexpect, poetry, shellingham).
- Actively maintained with a recent commit on 2026-08-10.
License · maintenance · safety
MIT (permissive) — MIT license is permissive; you can use this plugin freely in commercial and private projects without restriction.
last release 2025-01-05 (586 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-10 · 140 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 135,754 downloads/mo, #11,419 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
poetry self add poetry-plugin-shell
poetry shell- Whether the plugin works with all Poetry installation methods (self, pipx inject, pip install) equally well in practice.
- Shell detection behavior on less common shells or non-standard shell configurations.
What it is and what it does
Poetry-plugin-shell is a Poetry plugin that adds a `shell` command to launch an interactive subshell with your project's virtual environment pre-activated. It detects your current shell automatically (or falls back to the SHELL or COMSPEC environment variable) and creates the virtual environment if it doesn't exist. The plugin uses shellingham internally to identify the active shell, then spawns a new shell process with the venv activated—you exit with `exit` rather than `deactivate` to properly leave both the shell and the environment.
This plugin restores functionality that was previously built into Poetry itself. It depends on pexpect for subprocess interaction, poetry as the host framework, and shellingham for shell detection. The package supports Python 3.9 through 3.13 and is actively maintained.
Use it for
- Quickly enter a project's virtual environment from the command line without manually sourcing activation scripts.
- Ensure a clean shell session with the correct venv activated when switching between Poetry projects.
- Automate shell setup in scripts or CI/CD workflows that need to run commands inside a Poetry project's environment.
- Detect and use the developer's preferred shell (bash, zsh, fish, etc.) automatically when activating the venv.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you use Poetry and want a convenient way to activate your project's virtual environment.
Install friction is low, maintenance is active, and there are no known vulnerabilities. The MIT license imposes no restrictions. Install via `poetry self add poetry-plugin-shell` for the smoothest integration.
Install
poetry-plugin-shell on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction; the package is a pure Python wheel with three straightforward runtime dependencies (pexpect, poetry, shellingham). Actively maintained with a recent commit on 2026-08-10.
Requires Poetry to be installed; the plugin integrates as a Poetry command extension.
License in practice
MIT license is permissive; you can use this plugin freely in commercial and private projects without restriction.
Quickstart
poetry self add poetry-plugin-shell
poetry shellVerify before relying
- Whether the plugin works with all Poetry installation methods (self, pipx inject, pip install) equally well in practice.
- Shell detection behavior on less common shells or non-standard shell configurations.
Package facts
| License | MIT permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release <4.0,>=3.9 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 3 packagespexpectpoetryshellingham |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 586 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 135,754 / month, #11,419 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 :: 3.9 |
Evidence: poetry_plugin_shell-1.0.1-py3-none-any.whl
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See also poetry · shellingham · poetry-plugin-export · nox-poetry · poetry-core · xonsh · poetry-dynamic-versioning · poethepoet · coherent.licensed · cement