What it does
Rich is a Python library for terminal output. Its Console API prints styled text and structured content such as tables, Markdown, and syntax-highlighted code, while a separate progress API displays updates for long-running tasks. It is useful for command-line programs that need more readable status or diagnostic output without implementing terminal formatting themselves.
Install the package with pip install rich, create a Console, and use console.print() for output that benefits from styles or markup. A command-line report can use a table for several rows, or render a Markdown fragment when the output is intended for a person reading the terminal. The official introduction also documents syntax highlighting, logging, and tracebacks. These are documented examples, not code run for this listing.
For a download or batch job, Rich's progress API can display a task description and changing progress values. Keep the underlying work in your own code and use Rich to present its state; the library does not monitor remote services or decide whether a job succeeded. If the output is intended for another program to parse, use a stable data format instead of terminal styling.
Rich is a library from Textualize and its repository contains an MIT license. Textual, another Textualize project, builds interactive terminal applications; Rich focuses on rendering formatted output inside an application. They are related projects, not two names for the same package.
Strengths
- One Console API can print styled text and richer terminal content such as tables and Markdown.
- The documentation includes dedicated APIs for progress displays, syntax highlighting, logging, and tracebacks.
- The official introduction documents installation from PyPI.
Watch out for
- Rich improves terminal presentation but does not supply the application's task logic or structured monitoring backend.
- Styled output is aimed at people using a terminal, not as a machine-readable interchange format.
Best for
- Python CLIs that need clearer progress, diagnostics, or tabular terminal output.
- Developer utilities that display Markdown or syntax-highlighted snippets in a console.
- Jobs where an existing Python process should present progress without adding a monitoring service.
Sources
- Rich documentation (Oct 25, 2026)
- Introduction (Oct 25, 2026)
- Console API (Oct 25, 2026)
- Progress Display (Oct 25, 2026)
- Textualize/rich (Oct 25, 2026)
- MIT License (Oct 25, 2026)
- Textualize/textual (Oct 25, 2026)