PICLE

PICLE builds interactive command-line shells from Pydantic v2 models. It uses Python’s standard cmd loop under the hood and turns each entered line into a walk through a model tree:

Root model
  ├─ field -> sub-model (becomes a command group)
  ├─ field -> value (collects validated input)
  └─ field -> function (execute when ENTER is pressed)

What you get out of the box:

• Nested commands (models inside models)
• Validation and type conversion via Pydantic
• Inline discovery with ? / ?? and tab completion
• Optional piping with | to post-process results
• Optional Rich/Tabulate/YAML output helpers (extras)

Install:

pip install picle

A minimal example:

import time
from typing import Any

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field
from picle import App


class Show(BaseModel):
    version: Any = Field(
        None,
        description="Show software version",
        json_schema_extra={"function": "show_version"},
    )
    clock: Any = Field(
        None,
        description="Show current clock",
        json_schema_extra={"function": "show_clock"},
    )

    @staticmethod
    def show_version():
        return "0.1.0"

    @staticmethod
    def show_clock():
        return time.ctime()


class Root(BaseModel):
    show: Show = Field(None, description="Show commands")

    class PicleConfig:
        intro = "PICLE sample app"
        prompt = "picle#"


if __name__ == "__main__":
    App(Root).start()