Concepts

These pages explain how argclass works and why — the mental models behind the API, rather than step-by-step instructions. Read them when you want to understand the design, not to accomplish a specific task. For tasks, see the Quick Start, Tutorial, and the How-to Guides; for exact signatures, see the API Reference.

• Why argclass?
• Parsers, Groups & Subparsers
• The Configuration Model
• Types & Custom Actions
• Security Checklist

• Why argclass? — the design choices behind the library: classes over decorators, the zero-dependency constraint, and how it compares to argparse and Click/Typer.

• Parsers, groups & subparsers — what a class-body declaration actually is, why groups are not parsers, and how instances become per-parser copies.

• The configuration model — the single priority chain that governs defaults, config files, environment, and CLI, and how it shapes both reading and generating config.

• Types & custom actions — how values flow through the type → converter pipeline and how argparse passthrough lets you ship custom actions.

• Security model — the threat model for secrets and environment sanitization, and what argclass does and does not protect.