rich-rst
A beautiful reStructuredText renderer for rich
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. Low install friction, permissive MIT license, active maintenance, no known vulnerabilities, and a clear use case for terminal-based documentation preview. Install if you work with reStructuredText and want to view it formatted in the terminal; skip only if you have no need for reST rendering or prefer other markup formats.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Low friction: pure Python wheel with only two runtime dependencies (rich and pygments).
- Active maintenance with a release 40 days ago and ongoing commits.
License · maintenance · safety
MIT (permissive) — MIT license permits free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions—suitable for both open-source and commercial projects.
last release 2026-07-05 (40 days) · last repo commit 2026-07-18 · 20 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 91,027,126 downloads/mo, #370 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install rich-rst
from rich import print
from rich_rst import RestructuredText
document = """heading\n=======\n\nThis is **bold** text.\n\n.. code-block:: python\n\n print('hello')"""
print(RestructuredText(document))- Whether all docutils features render correctly or if terminal limitations affect specific element types beyond those documented in ELEMENTS.md
- Performance characteristics when rendering very large reStructuredText documents
What it is and what it does
rich-rst bridges reStructuredText and terminal rendering by converting reST markup into Rich renderables. It handles standard documentation elements—headings, lists, tables, code blocks, links, footnotes—and Sphinx-specific roles, letting you preview docstrings and documentation directly in the terminal without leaving your shell. The package depends on rich for terminal rendering and pygments for syntax highlighting.
It provides both a Python API (instantiate RestructuredText with your document string and print it) and a CLI for rendering files or stdin, with options to control code themes, line numbers, lexer behavior, and HTML export. The renderer is terminal-focused, so some docutils features may not translate to visual output, but the package documents these limitations.
Use it for
- Preview README or documentation files in the terminal before committing or publishing.
- Display formatted docstrings inline during development or in interactive Python sessions.
- Build CLI tools that render help text or embedded documentation with rich formatting.
- Export reST documentation to HTML from the command line without a full Sphinx build.
- Integrate reST rendering into terminal-based documentation browsers or viewers.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
Low install friction, permissive MIT license, active maintenance, no known vulnerabilities, and a clear use case for terminal-based documentation preview. Install if you work with reStructuredText and want to view it formatted in the terminal; skip only if you have no need for reST rendering or prefer other markup formats.
Install
rich-rst on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction: pure Python wheel with only two runtime dependencies (rich and pygments). Active maintenance with a release 40 days ago and ongoing commits.
License in practice
MIT license permits free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions—suitable for both open-source and commercial projects.
Quickstart
pip install rich-rst
from rich import print
from rich_rst import RestructuredText
document = """heading\n=======\n\nThis is **bold** text.\n\n.. code-block:: python\n\n print('hello')"""
print(RestructuredText(document))Verify before relying
- Whether all docutils features render correctly or if terminal limitations affect specific element types beyond those documented in ELEMENTS.md
- Performance characteristics when rendering very large reStructuredText documents
Package facts
| License | MIT permissive |
| Python support | Not specified |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 2 packagesrichpygments |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 40 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 91,027,126 / month, #370 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 :: DevelopersNatural Language :: EnglishOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming 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: rich_rst-2.1.0-py3-none-any.whl
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