python
51 lines · 7 steps
Custom user CLI commands in Flask
Group Click commands under a Flask AppGroup to manage users from the command line.
Explained by
highlit
1import click
2from flask.cli import AppGroup
3
4from . import db
5from .models import User
6
7user_cli = AppGroup("user", help="Manage application users.")
8
9
10@user_cli.command("create")
11@click.argument("email")
12@click.option("--password", prompt=True, hide_input=True, confirmation_prompt=True)
13@click.option("--admin", is_flag=True, help="Grant administrator privileges.")
14def create_user(email, password, admin):
15 if User.query.filter_by(email=email).first():
16 raise click.ClickException(f"A user with {email!r} already exists.")
17
18 user = User(email=email, is_admin=admin)
19 user.set_password(password)
20 db.session.add(user)
21 db.session.commit()
22 click.secho(f"Created user {email} (id={user.id}).", fg="green")
23
24
25@user_cli.command("promote")
26@click.argument("email")
27def promote_user(email):
28 user = User.query.filter_by(email=email).first()
29 if user is None:
30 raise click.ClickException(f"No user found for {email!r}.")
31
32 user.is_admin = True
33 db.session.commit()
34 click.secho(f"{email} is now an administrator.", fg="yellow")
35
36
37@user_cli.command("delete")
38@click.argument("email")
39@click.confirmation_option(prompt="Permanently delete this user?")
40def delete_user(email):
41 user = User.query.filter_by(email=email).first()
42 if user is None:
43 raise click.ClickException(f"No user found for {email!r}.")
44
45 db.session.delete(user)
46 db.session.commit()
47 click.secho(f"Deleted {email}.", fg="red")
48
49
50def register_cli(app):
51 app.cli.add_command(user_cli)
01 / 01
STEP 01
‹ swipe to step through ›
Walkthrough
Space play
←→ step
click any line
Three takeaways
- 1An AppGroup bundles related Click commands under one namespace that shares the Flask app context.
- 2Click decorators declare arguments, prompts, and confirmations declaratively instead of hand-parsing input.
- 3Raising ClickException gives clean, exit-code-aware error messages instead of raw tracebacks.
Related explainers
python
import heapq from datetime import datetime from pathlib import Path from typing import Iterator, NamedTuple
Merging sorted log files with heapq
generators
heapq
lazy-evaluation
Intermediate
6 steps
python
import datetime from dataclasses import dataclass
Parsing fixed-width records in Python
parsing
generators
dataclasses
Intermediate
8 steps
python
from itertools import product from dataclasses import dataclass from decimal import Decimal
Generating product variants with itertools.product
cartesian-product
dataclass
decimal
Intermediate
7 steps
python
from typing import Callable, Dict, Type class PluginRegistry:
A decorator-based plugin registry in Python
decorators
registry pattern
factory
Intermediate
9 steps
python
from fastapi import APIRouter, BackgroundTasks, Depends, HTTPException, status from pydantic import BaseModel, EmailStr from sqlalchemy.orm import Session
Building a signup endpoint in FastAPI
dependency-injection
request-validation
background-tasks
Intermediate
8 steps
python
from django import forms from django.utils import timezone from .models import Reservation
Multi-field validation in a Django ModelForm
form validation
cross-field validation
modelform
Intermediate
7 steps
Share this explainer
Here's the card — post it anywhere.
Made with highlit — turn any snippet into a walkthrough like this in about a minute.
Explain your code
Embed this explainer
Drop the interactive walkthrough into a blog or docs. Views never cost a credit.
<iframe src="https://highlit.co/explainers/custom-user-cli-commands-in-flask-explained-python-ba8b/embed?autoplay=1" width="100%" height="520" loading="lazy" style="border:0"></iframe>
Autoplay is on by default — add ?autoplay=0 to start paused.