Click Aliases

1.0.5 · active · verified Sat Apr 11

click-aliases is a Python library that extends Click, a popular CLI creation kit, by allowing developers to assign multiple distinct aliases to commands and groups. It addresses Click's lack of built-in 'true' command aliasing (beyond prefix matching) by providing a custom group class. The current version is 1.0.5, released in October 2024, and it generally follows a maintenance release cadence.

Warnings

gotcha Click's native functionality supports command prefix matching (e.g., 'comm' for 'commit' if unique), but not 'true' distinct aliases. `click-aliases` provides the latter. Be aware of this distinction to avoid confusion about which form of aliasing you need.
Fix: Understand that `click-aliases` is for defining explicit, distinct alternative names for commands, not for automatically shortening command names (which Click handles to a degree).
gotcha When combining `click-aliases` with other Click extensions (e.g., `rich-click`), there might be conflicts or unexpected behavior, particularly regarding help text formatting. Aliases may not appear correctly or may break the formatting of individual command help.
Fix: Test thoroughly when using multiple Click extensions. For help output issues, custom `HelpFormatter` implementations or further overrides of Click's core classes might be required to integrate alias display seamlessly.
deprecated Click's core maintainers have previously indicated that alias functionality is covered by overridable APIs and is not planned for direct integration into Click's core. While `click-aliases` provides a convenient abstraction, users should be aware that native support for this specific aliasing pattern is unlikely to be added to Click itself.
Fix: Continue using `click-aliases` or implement custom group classes as shown in Click's advanced patterns if more fine-grained control is needed. This warning is more about Click's design philosophy than a deprecation within `click-aliases`.

Install

pip install click-aliases Install stable version

Imports

ClickAliasedGroup
```
from click_aliases import ClickAliasedGroup
```
This is the primary class to import and use with @click.group(cls=ClickAliasedGroup).

Quickstart

This example demonstrates how to set up a Click CLI with `click-aliases`. The `ClickAliasedGroup` is passed as the class for the main Click group, and then individual commands can specify aliases using the `aliases` argument in the `@cli.command()` decorator.

import click
from click_aliases import ClickAliasedGroup

@click.group(cls=ClickAliasedGroup)
def cli():
    """A simple CLI with aliases."""
    pass

@cli.command(aliases=['create', 'mk'])
def make():
    """Makes something new."""
    click.echo('Making something...')

@cli.command(aliases=['rm', 'delete'])
def remove():
    """Removes something."""
    click.echo('Removing something...')

if __name__ == '__main__':
    cli()

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