GH-130645: Default to color help in argparse by pablogsal · Pull Request #136809 · python/cpython

pablogsal · Jul 19, 2025

Colored help significantly improves readability and user experience by helping users visually group and separate different sections, options, and arguments. Modern terminals overwhelmingly support ANSI color codes, and most contemporary programming languages and CLI tools now default to colored output when appropriate.

This change aligns Python's argparse with current standards where color is the expected default behavior. Users find colored output particularly valuable for quickly scanning and understanding command-line help, as it creates natural visual hierarchy and reduces cognitive load when parsing complex option lists.

The existing color detection logic already gracefully falls back to plain text on unsupported terminals, ensuring backwards compatibility. Users who prefer monochrome output retain full control through standard terminal preferences and environment variables.

Issue: Add colour to argparse help #130645

StanFromIreland

LGTM, I like these:-)

Requested color expert. ~~I think this can be skip-news since there is no change to the content?~~ I see there was a NEWS entry for the previous PR, it was general enough that we could put it under it if that is possible?

Co-authored-by: Łukasz Langa <lukasz@langa.pl>

ambv

I can approve again if you really want me to.

…umentParser

AA-Turner

The rationale makes sense. My only concern would be cmd.exe on Windows, where I've had bad experiences with ANSI codes before, but local testing demonstrates that things seem to be working.

A

bedevere-bot · Jul 20, 2025

🤖 New build scheduled with the buildbot fleet by @hugovk for commit 0abf68e 🤖

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https://buildbot.python.org/all/#/grid?branch=refs%2Fpull%2F136809%2Fmerge

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savannahostrowski

Man, this looks so good! Thanks for making the PR. Just one small comment re. docs!

savannahostrowski · Jul 20, 2025

We've gotten a lot of approvals on this PR 😃 and I intend to merge it imminently. @hugovk We're good to get this into 3.14, yeah? If so, I'll add the backport to 3.14 label before merge.

hugovk · Jul 20, 2025

Yes, good to backport to 3.14.

miss-islington-app · Jul 20, 2025

Thanks @pablogsal for the PR, and @savannahostrowski for merging it 🌮🎉.. I'm working now to backport this PR to: 3.14.
🐍🍒⛏🤖 I'm not a witch! I'm not a witch!

(cherry picked from commit acbe896) Co-authored-by: Pablo Galindo Salgado <Pablogsal@gmail.com> Co-authored-by: Hugo van Kemenade <1324225+hugovk@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: Łukasz Langa <lukasz@langa.pl> Co-authored-by: Adam Turner <9087854+aa-turner@users.noreply.github.com>

bedevere-app · Jul 20, 2025

GH-136886 is a backport of this pull request to the 3.14 branch.

) GH-130645: Default to color help in argparse (GH-136809) (cherry picked from commit acbe896) Co-authored-by: Pablo Galindo Salgado <Pablogsal@gmail.com> Co-authored-by: Hugo van Kemenade <1324225+hugovk@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: Łukasz Langa <lukasz@langa.pl> Co-authored-by: Adam Turner <9087854+aa-turner@users.noreply.github.com>

tgbrooks · Jul 23, 2025

It seemed like the previous discussion at #130645 had the consensus of having this opt-in. I'm surprised to see this made opt-out now. For example, @savannahostrowski previously stated "I'm +1 on this, if it's opt-in" but appears to approve of this change. Other commenters from the previous thread that were also in support of making it opt-in include @rhettinger and @sobolevn but haven't commented on this issue. Concerns mentioned included start-up time and breaking of tests. No one in the previous issue made an argument for doing opt-out. It seems to me that making it opt-out is perhaps premature. Was this discussed somewhere else that I've missed? Thanks.

Apologies if this isn't the right place to raise this, I'm not a contributor, I just saw the 3.14rc1 release and noticed this.

savannahostrowski · Jul 23, 2025

@tgbrooks Yeah, I thought about this more, and I think the risk here is very low. @hugovk did a lot of due diligence around testing performance impact, making it respect NO_COLOR, etc., so my concerns were addressed. As Pablo also mentioned, color aligns with current standards and expectations, so I think this is a great addition.

Co-authored-by: Hugo van Kemenade <1324225+hugovk@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: Łukasz Langa <lukasz@langa.pl> Co-authored-by: Adam Turner <9087854+aa-turner@users.noreply.github.com>

…" (#19721) Reverts #19021 After the PR was merged, `color` was changed to `true` for Python 3.14. Setting it manually is no longer necessary. python/cpython#136809 https://docs.python.org/3.14/library/argparse.html#color

…36809) (python#136886) pythonGH-130645: Default to color help in argparse (pythonGH-136809) (cherry picked from commit acbe896) Co-authored-by: Pablo Galindo Salgado <Pablogsal@gmail.com> Co-authored-by: Hugo van Kemenade <1324225+hugovk@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: Łukasz Langa <lukasz@langa.pl> Co-authored-by: Adam Turner <9087854+aa-turner@users.noreply.github.com>

python/cpython#136809 made `color` default to True in ArgumentParser.

….14+. python/cpython#136809 made `color` default to True in ArgumentParser. Backport of d0d85cd from main.

python/cpython#136809 made `color` default to True in ArgumentParser.

Default to color help in argparse

5c4080a

pablogsal requested a review from savannahostrowski as a code owner July 19, 2025 12:44

bedevere-app Bot added the awaiting core review label Jul 19, 2025

bedevere-app Bot mentioned this pull request Jul 19, 2025

Add colour to argparse help #130645

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StanFromIreland requested a review from hugovk July 19, 2025 12:47

StanFromIreland approved these changes Jul 19, 2025

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hugovk added 3 commits July 19, 2025 16:09

Default to color help in argparse

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Update docs

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Update tests

dddcd65

hugovk requested a review from erlend-aasland as a code owner July 19, 2025 14:47

ambv reviewed Jul 19, 2025

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Comment thread Doc/library/argparse.rst Outdated

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bedevere-app Bot added awaiting merge and removed awaiting core review labels Jul 19, 2025

Fix wording

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Co-authored-by: Łukasz Langa <lukasz@langa.pl>

pablogsal requested review from 1st1, ambv and vstinner July 19, 2025 15:21

ambv approved these changes Jul 19, 2025

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Improve description of disabling colour support locally vs in the Arg…

82c7e25

…umentParser

AA-Turner approved these changes Jul 19, 2025

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Add a cross-reference to NEWS

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hugovk added the 🔨 test-with-buildbots Test PR w/ buildbots; report in status section label Jul 20, 2025

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AA-Turner added the needs backport to 3.14 bugs and security fixes label Jul 20, 2025

savannahostrowski merged commit acbe896 into python:main Jul 20, 2025
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bedevere-app Bot removed the awaiting merge label Jul 20, 2025

bedevere-app Bot removed the needs backport to 3.14 bugs and security fixes label Jul 20, 2025

neutrinoceros mentioned this pull request Aug 15, 2025

CLN: simplify argument parser settings astropy/astropy#18520

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cdce8p mentioned this pull request Aug 24, 2025

Revert "Enable colored output for argparse help in Python 3.14 (#19021)" python/mypy#19721

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This was referenced Oct 12, 2025

Add missing @force_not_colorized_test_class decorator to TestOptionalHelpVersionActions #139979

Closed

GH-139979: Add @force_not_colorized_test_class to TestOptionalHelpVersionActions #139980

Merged

jacobtylerwalls mentioned this pull request Dec 19, 2025

Fixed #36376 -- Fixed color suppression in argparse help on Python 3.14+. django/django#20422

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6 tasks

jacobtylerwalls pushed a commit to Skyiesac/django that referenced this pull request Dec 22, 2025

Fixed #36376 -- Fixed --no-color for command help in Python 3.14+.

6910154

python/cpython#136809 made `color` default to True in ArgumentParser.

jacobtylerwalls pushed a commit to django/django that referenced this pull request Dec 22, 2025

Fixed #36376 -- Fixed --no-color for command help in Python 3.14+.

d0d85cd

python/cpython#136809 made `color` default to True in ArgumentParser.

jacobtylerwalls pushed a commit to django/django that referenced this pull request Dec 22, 2025

[6.0.x] Fixed #36376 -- Fixed --no-color for command help in Python 3…

b0befe1

….14+. python/cpython#136809 made `color` default to True in ArgumentParser. Backport of d0d85cd from main.

jacobtylerwalls pushed a commit to django/django that referenced this pull request Dec 22, 2025

[5.2.x] Fixed #36376 -- Fixed --no-color for command help in Python 3…

8346657

….14+. python/cpython#136809 made `color` default to True in ArgumentParser. Backport of d0d85cd from main.

yshng pushed a commit to OpenTechStrategies/django that referenced this pull request May 17, 2026

[5.2.x] Fixed #36376 -- Fixed --no-color for command help in Python 3…

0a217cc

….14+. python/cpython#136809 made `color` default to True in ArgumentParser. Backport of d0d85cd from main.

JordanHyatt pushed a commit to JordanHyatt/django that referenced this pull request May 18, 2026

Fixed #36376 -- Fixed --no-color for command help in Python 3.14+.

35c7643

python/cpython#136809 made `color` default to True in ArgumentParser.

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