# prompt-toolkit/python-prompt-toolkit

Library for building powerful interactive command line applications in Python

Repository: https://github.com/prompt-toolkit/python-prompt-toolkit
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/python-prompt-toolkit
Homepage: https://python-prompt-toolkit.readthedocs.io/
Language: Python
License: BSD-3-Clause
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-07-26T20:59:35+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 87/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 94, release rhythm 71, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4603, "days_push": 38, "days_rel": 38, "gap_med": 116, "n_releases_24m": 6}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 10561, forks 802 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:42.345464+00:00)

## What it is
A pure Python library for building powerful interactive command line and terminal applications, serving as an advanced replacement for GNU readline. It supports syntax highlighting, code completion, Emacs/Vi key bindings, mouse support, and full-screen terminal UIs.

## Use cases
- build interactive command line prompts in python
- add syntax highlighting and autocompletion to a cli input
- replace gnu readline in a python tool
- build full-screen terminal applications
- support vi and emacs key bindings in a repl
- handle unicode and cjk input in terminal apps

## When to choose
- you need rich interactive input handling in a Python CLI
- you want cross-platform terminal support including Windows
- you need advanced readline features like incremental search and multi-line editing

## When to avoid
- you need a GUI or web-based interface
- you are building a non-interactive batch script
- you need a terminal UI in a language other than Python

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: cli, terminal-ui, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: python, windows, bsd, cli
- tags: readline-replacement, interactive-prompts, syntax-highlighting, key-bindings, full-screen-apps, autocompletion, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- prompt-toolkit/python-prompt-toolkit (main) score 87

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:42.345464+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:18:32.324353+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/prompt-toolkit/python-prompt-toolkit (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:42.345464+00:00, sha 685f55f124bf)
  - homepage: https://python-prompt-toolkit.readthedocs.io/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:17:47.188369+00:00, sha f655c78991c8)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.