pip-search-ex

Modern PyPI Package Search - Fast, Smart, Beautiful. Part of the DwarvenSuite.

A complete replacement for the discontinued pip search command with unified search architecture, interactive TUI, and 20+ themes.

What's New in v2.0.9

• --installed --raw fixed: results now appear correctly even on fresh installs with no metadata cache built yet
• Ubuntu/Debian TUI install fix: PSE now auto-detects PEP 668 externally-managed environments and adds --break-system-packages automatically -- no more install errors on Ubuntu VPS

What's New in v2.0.8

• OR search: pip-search-ex pip search ex returns packages matching pip OR search OR ex in name or description -- inclusive, no quotes needed. Add --explicit to flip to exclusive exact matching
• --packages / -p: exact lookup for specific package names -- pip-search-ex -p gtk4 jellyfin kodi
• --installed / --outdated / --newer: always exact, always cache-only, never hit PyPI

What's New in v2.0.7

• Browser-style metadata cache: Each cached package entry now has a 360-day LRU TTL. Access a package in a search and its clock resets. Don't touch it for 360 days and it gets evicted and re-fetched fresh next time. Actively used packages never go stale
• Live fetch restored correctly: Cache misses now fetch live from PyPI for all displayed results, rate-limited to ~6-7 req/sec. No more empty results on fresh installs or sparse caches

What's New in v2.0.6

• External theming -- two user theme dirs: Drop your own theme XML files into either ~/.cache/pip_search_ex/themes/ or ~/.config/pip-search-ex/themes/. Both are scanned automatically; config dir takes priority over cache dir
• Invalid themes never crash PSE: Bad XML, missing colour keys, or corrupt files are skipped at runtime with a warning -- PSE falls back to default
• validate_themes.py: Replaces the old testthemes bash script. Run it to check all theme dirs for missing required colour keys or XML errors before deploying themes

What's New in v2.0.5

• [S] / [D] origin markers: Installed packages now show [S] (system/root pip install) or [D] (distro-managed) in the status column. Normal user installs show no marker -- no noise when it's just yours. Context-aware legend line appears at the top of both TUI and raw output, and omits [S] automatically when running as root
• No more PyPI hammering: All live fetches removed from the foreground search path. Cache misses return name-only results instantly; the background worker fills metadata in over time at 2 req/sec. PSE is now friendlier to PyPI than searching on PyPI directly
• --installed is now fast: No longer loads the full 500K package index when you only want to see what's installed
• Lean cache: metadata_db.json no longer embeds a redundant copy of the package index -- it now grows proportionally to cached metadata only

What's New in v2.0.0

• Unified Search: Intelligent search that works immediately -- searches ALL PyPI packages by name, with opportunistic metadata enrichment as the cache builds
• Cache Status: New --status flag shows cache completion percentage
• Light Terminal Theme: Perfect for white/light backgrounds with --inverse / --light-terminal

Features

• 🔍 Unified Search - One intelligent search flow that just works:
  • Searches ALL PyPI packages by name (738K+ packages)
  • Opportunistic metadata search (summaries/descriptions from cache)
  • Progressive enhancement as cache builds in background
• Two display modes:
  • RAW mode - --raw: Classic table output like the original pip search
  • TUI mode (default) - Interactive interface with package management
• 📦 Package management (TUI mode) - Install, update, and uninstall packages directly
• 📊 Installation status - See which packages are installed, outdated, or available
• 🎨 20+ themes - Including new light terminal theme (--inverse) for white backgrounds
• ⚡ Fast performance - Concurrent fetching, smart caching with ETags
• 🔄 Background cache - Builds progressively without blocking searches
• 📈 Cache visibility - --status flag shows cache completion percentage

Installation

pip install pip-search-ex

Usage

Basic search (TUI mode)

pip-search-ex django

Opens an interactive terminal interface where you can browse, install, update, and uninstall packages.

Raw mode (classic pip search style)

pip-search-ex django --raw

Displays results in a clean table format, just like the original pip search command. Perfect for:

• Quick searches without entering TUI
• Scripting and automation
• Piping to other commands
• Users who prefer the classic experience

Show cache status

pip-search-ex django --raw --status

Displays cache completion percentage to see background cache building progress.

Choose a theme

# Nord theme
pip-search-ex pillow --nord

# Solarized theme
pip-search-ex flask --theme-solarized

# No colors
pip-search-ex requests --no-color

# Inverted (for use with --raw on white terminal windows, eg default xterm)
pip-search-ex pip-search --inverse

TUI Mode

In TUI mode, you can:

• Navigate with arrow keys or mouse
• Press Enter or click on a package to see available actions:
  • Install (for uninstalled packages)
  • Update (for outdated packages)
  • Reinstall (for installed packages)
  • Uninstall (for installed packages)
  • Downgrade (for installed packages that are newer-than-server version)
• Press 't' to change themes on the fly
• Press 'q' to quit
• Press 'esc' twice to quit

Raw Mode

Use '--raw' for simple table output that mimics the original 'pip_search':

pip-search-ex numpy --raw

Features in raw mode:

• Clean, bordered table layout

• Color-coded installation status with origin markers ([S] = system/root pip install, [D] = distro-managed)

• Multi-line text wrapping for long descriptions

• Works great with grep, awk, and other Unix tools:

  pip-search-ex django --raw | grep -i rest pip-search-ex --raw flask --no-color > packages.txt

CSV output mode

Use '--raw --raw' (double flag) for machine-readable CSV output:

pip-search-ex numpy --raw --raw

Outputs name,version,status,summary -- perfect for scripting and automation:

pip-search-ex requests --raw --raw | awk -F, '{print $1}'
pip-search-ex flask --raw --raw | grep "Installed"

Themes

pip-search-ex includes 21+ built-in themes including:

• 'light-terminal' - Optimized for white/light backgrounds (NEW in v2.0.0!)
• 'default' - Classic green/yellow/gray
• 'nord' - Nord color palette
• 'solarized' - Solarized color scheme (dark and light variants)
• 'dracula' - Dracula theme
• 'monokai' - Monokai color scheme
• 'gruvbox' - Gruvbox theme
• 'rose-pine' variants - Rose Pine, Rose Pine Moon, Rose Pine Dawn
• 'tokyo-night' - Tokyo Night theme
• 'catppuccin' variants - Latte, Frappe, Macchiato, Mocha
• 'atom-one' variants - Dark and Light
• And more!
• 'none' - No colors (plain text)

Using themes

pip-search-ex django --nord
pip-search-ex flask --theme-solarized
pip-search-ex requests --rose-pine-dawn
pip-search-ex numpy --inverse           # Light terminal theme
pip-search-ex pandas --light-terminal   # Same as --inverse

Each theme has multiple alias flags for convenience (e.g., '--nord', '--theme-nord', '--tn').

Creating custom themes

Drop your own theme XML files into either user theme directory -- both are scanned automatically:

• ~/.config/pip-search-ex/themes/ (preferred, XDG-style)
• ~/.cache/pip_search_ex/themes/ (also supported)

Config dir takes priority over cache dir. Both override bundled themes of the same name. Invalid or corrupt files are silently skipped -- they will never crash PSE.

To check your themes before use, run:

python3 validate_themes.py

This scans all three directories (bundled, cache, config) and reports any missing required colour keys or XML errors.

A valid theme XML file looks like this:

<theme name="my-theme">
  <aliases>
    <alias>--theme-my-theme</alias>
    <alias>--my-theme</alias>
  </aliases>
  <colors>
    <installed>#56949f</installed>
    <outdated>#ea9d34</outdated>
    <not_installed>#575279</not_installed>
    <error>#b4637a</error>
    <header>#907aa9</header>
    <border>#cecacd</border>
    <default>#575279</default>
  </colors>
</theme>

Colors are specified as hex values and automatically converted to ANSI 256-color codes for terminal display.

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• requests
• wcwidth
• textual
• packaging (optional, for better version comparison)

Why pip-search-ex?

The original pip search command was disabled in 2020 due to PyPI infrastructure limitations and hasn't returned. pip-search-ex provides a modern, enhanced replacement:

What we kept from the original:

• Simple command-line interface: pip-search-ex <query>
• Clean table output with --raw mode
• Color-coded installation status
• Fast search results

What we improved:

• 🔍 Unified Search: Searches both names and progressivley over time package summaries!
• 📊 Cache visibility: See cache progress with --status flag
• Dual modes: Use classic RAW mode OR interactive TUI mode
• Package management: Install/update/uninstall without leaving the interface
• Better performance: Smart caching, concurrent metadata fetching, background cache building
• 20+ themes: Including light terminal theme for white backgrounds
• Reliability: Uses PyPI's official JSON API
• Active maintenance: Modern codebase with v2.0.0 release

Whether you loved the simplicity of pip search or want more power, pip-search-ex has you covered!

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Part of DwarvenSuite

All tools follow the same philosophy: small, fast, correct, as few dependencies as possible!

Author

thedwarf -- gitdwarf

Support / Tip Jar

If you find pip-search-ex useful, you can support the project:

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details