Typer Multi-File Applications

When your CLI application grows, you can split it into multiple files and modules. This pattern helps maintain clean and organized code structure.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a multi-file Typer application.

Basic Structure

Here is a basic structure for a multi-file Typer application:

mycli/
├── __init__.py
├── main.py
├── users/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── add.py
│   └── delete.py
└── version.py

This application will have the following commands:

• users add
• users delete
• version

Implementation

Version Module (version.py)

Let's start by creating a simple module that prints the version of the application.

Python 3.8+

import typer

app = typer.Typer()


@app.command()
def version():
    typer.echo("My CLI Version 1.0")

In this file we are creating a new Typer app instance for the version command. This is not required in single-file applications, but in the case of multi-file applications it will allow us to include this command in the main application using add_typer.

Main Module (main.py)

The main module will be the entry point of the application. It will import the version module and the users module. We'll see how to implement the user module in the next section.

Python 3.8+

import typer

from .users import app as users_app
from .version import app as version_app

app = typer.Typer()

app.add_typer(version_app)
app.add_typer(users_app, name="users")

In this module, we import the version and users modules and add them to the main app using add_typer. For the users module, we specify the name as users to group the commands under the users namespace.

Let's now create the users module with the add and delete commands.

Users Add Command (users/add.py)

Python 3.8+

import typer

app = typer.Typer()


@app.command()
def add(name: str):
    typer.echo(f"Adding user: {name}")

Users Delete Command (users/delete.py)

Python 3.8+

import typer

app = typer.Typer()


@app.command()
def delete(name: str):
    typer.echo(f"Deleting user: {name}")

Users' app

Python 3.8+

import typer

from .add import app as add_app
from .delete import app as delete_app

app = typer.Typer()

app.add_typer(add_app)
app.add_typer(delete_app)

Similar to the version module, we create a new Typer app instance for the users module. This allows us to include the add and delete commands in the users app.