Using the console

Celbridge comes with a Console panel offering a CLI (Command Line Interface). The prompt in this terminal comprises 3 greater-than signs >>>.

The IPython REPL

The console panel is rendered using Xterm.js hosted in a WebView2. The Xterm.js terminal is connected to a terminal emulator session via ConPTY which is hosting a Python process. The REPL environment is implemented using IPython (the same tech used in Jupyter Notebooks ). The IPython REPL is a full replacement for the built-in Python REPL that adds a lot of useful functionality. We support all the standard IPython magic commands, such as %run, !, %ls, etc.

The terminal is where you’ll see messages from Celbridge, such as the status of loading new extensions or a different version of Python if you change the project settings and re-load the project.

(I)Python REPL

This terminal offers a full Python REPL , with which you can interact. Some examples of using the Python REPL terminal include:

1. Run a Python script file named hello.py, one that contains a Python print() statement to ouput the string Hello world from Python:

   >>> run hello.py
   Hello world from Python
   

2. some basic Python commands, including setting and then using variables:

   >>> print(3 + 3)
   6
   
   >>> num_pizzas = 3
   
   >>> print(num_pizzas * 10)
   30
   

CLI commands

CLI bang ! commands

It also offers a range of commands for running CLI programs, available using the bang “!” (exclamation mark ) character. Examples including:

1. Directory list (in this example I’m working from an X: drive in a Celbridge project named celbridge_sample):

   >>> !dir
   Volume in drive X is Shared Folders
   
   Directory of X:\Downloads\celbridge_sample
   
   12/03/2025  10:56 PM               hello.py
   12/03/2025  07:59 AM               celbridge_sample.celbridge
   12/03/2025  08:08 AM               README.md
   

2. Running make commands. For example, if you’re building code solution or websites using the MAKE tool. In this example I’m running the make html command to generate HTML files from RST files in a Sphinx project (only the first few lines of output are shown …):

   >>> !make html
   Running Sphinx v8.2.3
   loading translations [en]... done
   loading pickled environment... done
   building [mo]: targets for 0 po files that are out of date
   writing output...
   ... and so on ...
   

Note

TIP Use <CTRL>+L to clear the console

IPython built-in “magic” % commands

IPython offers a range of commands for running CLI programs, available using the percent “%” character. Automagic mode is switched on by default, so in almost all cases you can omit the percent “%” character, since IPython will saerch its list of magic commands to match against what you have typed.

Examples including:

1. Print Working Direcotry (%pwd or pwd):

   >>> %pwd
   'C:\Documents\github\celbridge-docs'
   
   >>> 
   

2. Change Direcotry (%cd or cd):

   >>> %pwd
   'C:\Documents\github\celbridge-docs'
   
   >>> %cd ..
   C:\Documents\github
   
   >>> %pwd
   'C:\Documents\github'
   
   >>>
   

3. History of terminal commands (%history or history)

   >>> history
   pwd
   cd docs
   !make clean
   !make html
   !python3 -m http.server 8000 --directory _build\html
   history
   

The IPython documentation pages provide a full list of the magic commands

IPython .ipy files

If there are several commands you often type in the same sequence, or have commands with many arguments, you can type those commands into a text file with the .ipy extension, and then run the sequence of commands in that file at the terminal with:

>>> run <filename>.ipy

For example, when working with Sphinx I often wish to run !make clean immediately before running !make html. So I could create a file make.ipy containing these commands:

!make clean
!make html

And then I can run them by entering run make.ipy in the console.

Learn more about REPLs and this console at:

• REPL (Read-Evaluate-Print-Loop)

• CLI (Command Line Interface (terminal))

• MAKE