urwid

What it is and what it does

Urwid is a mature console UI library that abstracts away terminal complexity and lets you build interactive text applications using a widget-based model. It handles rendering, input events, and terminal compatibility across Unix-like systems and partially Windows, supporting UTF-8 and various color modes (24-bit true color down to 88 color). The library includes pre-built widgets (text boxes, buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, list boxes) and lets you choose your event loop (asyncio, Twisted, Glib, Tornado, trio, ZeroMQ, or a built-in select-based loop), making it suitable for everything from simple CLI tools to complex interactive applications.

You use Urwid by composing widgets into a display hierarchy, wrapping them in a MainLoop, and running the loop to handle user input and rendering. The library handles automatic text wrapping and alignment, smooth resizing, and terminal mode negotiation. It's been in active development since 2012 with a large contributor base and is currently maintained by multiple developers.

Use it for:

• Build interactive CLI tools with menus, forms, and scrollable lists without wrestling with raw curses.
• Create system monitoring dashboards or admin interfaces that run in a terminal.
• Develop text-based games or interactive fiction with rich UI elements.
• Build terminal-based data browsers or log viewers with dynamic content.
• Integrate terminal UI into async Python applications using asyncio or Twisted event loops.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Urwid is a Python console UI library that lets you build text-based applications with widgets, event loops, and display modes for Linux, macOS, and limited Windows support.

Yes. Urwid is a stable, actively maintained library with low install friction and no known vulnerabilities. The copyleft license (LGPL-2.1-only) is a real constraint for proprietary software but poses no issue for open-source or internal tools. Install it if you need to build a non-trivial console UI; for simple output, consider lighter alternatives.

Install

urwid on PyPI

pip install urwid

uv add urwid

poetry add urwid

Installing urwid

Before you install

Low friction: pure Python wheel with only two lightweight runtime dependencies (wcwidth and typing-extensions). Actively maintained with recent release and steady commit activity.

License in practice

Licensed under LGPL-2.1-only (copyleft). You must distribute source code and license terms with any derivative work; proprietary applications cannot use this package without dual licensing.

Quickstart

pip install urwid

import urwid

text = urwid.Text("Hello, World!")
urwid.MainLoop(text).run()

Requires Python 3.9 or later. Windows 10+ only for Windows support; some features (Terminal widget, ZMQ event loop) unavailable on Windows.

Verify before relying

• Whether the experimental LCD and web display modules are production-ready or still under active development.
• Performance characteristics when handling very large scrollable lists or complex widget hierarchies.

Package facts

Evidence: urwid-4.0.9-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: console, curses, listbox, ncurses, scroll, text layout, ui, user interface, widget

Tags

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