How can I split my Click commands, each with a set of sub-commands, into multiple files?

Question

I have one large click application that I've developed, but navigating through the different commands/subcommands is getting rough. How do I organize my commands into separate files? Is it possible to organize commands and their subcommands into separate classes?

Here's an example of how I would like to separate it:

init

import click  @click.group() @click.version_option() def cli():     pass #Entry Point 

command_cloudflare.py

@cli.group() @click.pass_context def cloudflare(ctx):     pass  @cloudflare.group('zone') def cloudflare_zone():     pass  @cloudflare_zone.command('add') @click.option('--jumpstart', '-j', default=True) @click.option('--organization', '-o', default='') @click.argument('url') @click.pass_obj @__cf_error_handler def cloudflare_zone_add(ctx, url, jumpstart, organization):     pass  @cloudflare.group('record') def cloudflare_record():     pass  @cloudflare_record.command('add') @click.option('--ttl', '-t') @click.argument('domain') @click.argument('name') @click.argument('type') @click.argument('content') @click.pass_obj @__cf_error_handler def cloudflare_record_add(ctx, domain, name, type, content, ttl):     pass  @cloudflare_record.command('edit') @click.option('--ttl', '-t') @click.argument('domain') @click.argument('name') @click.argument('type') @click.argument('content') @click.pass_obj @__cf_error_handler def cloudflare_record_edit(ctx, domain):     pass 

command_uptimerobot.py

@cli.group() @click.pass_context def uptimerobot(ctx):     pass  @uptimerobot.command('add') @click.option('--alert', '-a', default=True) @click.argument('name') @click.argument('url') @click.pass_obj def uptimerobot_add(ctx, name, url, alert):     pass  @uptimerobot.command('delete') @click.argument('names', nargs=-1, required=True) @click.pass_obj def uptimerobot_delete(ctx, names):     pass 

Answer 1

The downside of using CommandCollection for this is that it merges your commands and works only with command groups. The imho better alternative is to use add_command to achieve the same result.

I have a project with the following tree:

cli/ ├── __init__.py ├── cli.py ├── group1 │   ├── __init__.py │   ├── commands.py └── group2     ├── __init__.py     └── commands.py 

Each subcommand has its own module, what makes it incredibly easy to manage even complex implementations with many more helper classes and files. In each module, the commands.py file contains the @click annotations. Example group2/commands.py:

import click   @click.command() def version():     """Display the current version."""     click.echo(_read_version()) 

If necessary, you could easily create more classes in the module, and import and use them here, thus giving your CLI the full power of Python's classes and modules.

My cli.py is the entry point for the whole CLI:

import click  from .group1 import commands as group1 from .group2 import commands as group2  @click.group() def entry_point():     pass  entry_point.add_command(group1.command_group) entry_point.add_command(group2.version) 

With this setup, it is very easy to separate your commands by concerns, and also build additional functionality around them that they might need. It has served me very well so far...

Reference: http://click.pocoo.org/6/quickstart/#nesting-commands

Answer 2

Suppose your project have the following structure:

project/ ├── __init__.py ├── init.py └── commands     ├── __init__.py     └── cloudflare.py 

Groups are nothing more than multiple commands and groups can be nested. You can separate your groups into modules and import them on you init.py file and add them to the cli group using the add_command.

Here is a init.py example:

import click from .commands.cloudflare import cloudflare   @click.group() def cli():     pass   cli.add_command(cloudflare) 

You have to import the cloudflare group which lives inside the cloudflare.py file. Your commands/cloudflare.py would look like this:

import click   @click.group() def cloudflare():     pass   @cloudflare.command() def zone():     click.echo('This is the zone subcommand of the cloudflare command') 

Then you can run the cloudflare command like this:

$ python init.py cloudflare zone 

This information is not very explicit on the documentation but if you look at the source code, which is very well commented, you can see how groups can be nested.