---

name: rich-terminal-output description: Create beautiful terminal output with Rich library including tables, progress bars, panels, and syntax highlighting. Use when building CLI applications or enhancing terminal output in Python.

Rich Terminal Output Skill

When to Activate

Activate this skill when:

• Building CLI applications
• Displaying structured data (tables)
• Showing progress for long operations
• Creating error/status panels
• Pretty-printing objects for debugging
• Enhancing logging output

Installation

Copyuv add rich

# Quick test
python -c "from rich import print; print('[bold green]Rich working![/]')"

Core Concepts

Console Object

Copyfrom rich.console import Console

console = Console()

# Basic output
console.print("Hello, World!")

# Styled output
console.print("[bold red]Error:[/] Something went wrong")
console.print("[green]Success![/] Operation completed")

Markup Syntax

Copy"[bold]Bold[/]"
"[italic]Italic[/]"
"[red]Red text[/]"
"[blue on white]Blue on white background[/]"
"[bold red]Combined styles[/]"
"[link=https://example.com]Click here[/]"

Drop-in Print Replacement

Copyfrom rich import print

print("[bold cyan]Styled text[/]")
print({"key": "value"})  # Auto-pretty-prints

Tables

Copyfrom rich.console import Console
from rich.table import Table

console = Console()

table = Table(title="User List")

table.add_column("ID", style="cyan", justify="right")
table.add_column("Name", style="magenta")
table.add_column("Email", style="green")
table.add_column("Status", justify="center")

table.add_row("1", "Alice", "alice@example.com", "✓ Active")
table.add_row("2", "Bob", "bob@example.com", "✓ Active")
table.add_row("3", "Charlie", "charlie@example.com", "✗ Inactive")

console.print(table)

Panels

Copyfrom rich.console import Console
from rich.panel import Panel

console = Console()

# Simple panel
console.print(Panel("Operation completed!"))

# Styled panel
console.print(Panel(
    "[green]All tests passed![/]\n\n"
    "Total: 42 tests\n"
    "Time: 3.2s",
    title="Test Results",
    border_style="green"
))

# Error panel
console.print(Panel(
    "[red]Connection refused[/]\n\n"
    "Host: localhost:5432",
    title="[bold red]Error[/]",
    border_style="red"
))

Progress Bars

Simple Progress

Copyfrom rich.progress import track
import time

for item in track(range(100), description="Processing..."):
    time.sleep(0.01)

Multiple Tasks

Copyfrom rich.progress import Progress

with Progress() as progress:
    task1 = progress.add_task("[red]Downloading...", total=100)
    task2 = progress.add_task("[green]Processing...", total=100)

    while not progress.finished:
        progress.update(task1, advance=0.9)
        progress.update(task2, advance=0.6)
        time.sleep(0.02)

Syntax Highlighting

Copyfrom rich.console import Console
from rich.syntax import Syntax

console = Console()

code = '''
def hello():
    print("Hello, World!")
'''

syntax = Syntax(code, "python", theme="monokai", line_numbers=True)
console.print(syntax)

Tree Displays

Copyfrom rich.console import Console
from rich.tree import Tree

console = Console()

tree = Tree("[bold blue]MyProject/[/]")
src = tree.add("[bold]src/[/]")
src.add("main.py")
src.add("config.py")

tests = tree.add("[bold]tests/[/]")
tests.add("test_main.py")

console.print(tree)

Logging Integration

Copyimport logging
from rich.logging import RichHandler

logging.basicConfig(
    level=logging.INFO,
    format="%(message)s",
    handlers=[RichHandler(rich_tracebacks=True)]
)

logger = logging.getLogger("myapp")
logger.info("Application started")
logger.error("Connection failed")

Pretty Tracebacks

Copyfrom rich.traceback import install

# Call once at startup
install(show_locals=True)

# All exceptions now have beautiful tracebacks

Common Pitfalls

Reuse Console Instance

Copy# ❌ Bad
def show(msg):
    Console().print(msg)  # Creates new instance each time

# ✅ Good
console = Console()
def show(msg):
    console.print(msg)

Escape User Input

Copyfrom rich.markup import escape

username = "user[admin]"

# ❌ Bad - brackets break markup
console.print(f"[blue]{username}[/]")

# ✅ Good
console.print(f"[blue]{escape(username)}[/]")

Handle Non-TTY

Copyimport sys

console = Console(force_terminal=sys.stdout.isatty())

CLI Application Pattern

Copyimport click
from rich.console import Console
from rich.panel import Panel

console = Console()

@click.command()
@click.argument('filename')
def process(filename):
    console.print(f"[bold]Processing:[/] {filename}")

    with console.status("[bold green]Working..."):
        result = do_work(filename)

    if result.success:
        console.print(Panel(
            f"[green]Processed {result.count} items[/]",
            title="Success"
        ))
    else:
        console.print(f"[red]Error:[/] {result.error}")

When NOT to Use Rich

• Non-interactive scripts (output piped)
• Server-side logging
• Performance-critical loops
• Minimal dependency requirements

Related Resources

See AgentUsage/rich_formatting.md for complete documentation including:

• Advanced table customization
• Spinner and status displays
• Console recording
• Integration patterns