CLI: can bool parameters become --flag instead of --flag true?

[indigoviolet]

🚀 Feature request

Currently, while using CLI(), a bool param must be specified on the command line as --flag true or --flag yes. Is it possible to set it up such that --flag without the yes or true will still pass True into the function?

Motivation

I see this commonly tripping up members on my team. --flag is a common pattern, store_true in argparse, supported in python-fire (https://github.com/google/python-fire/blob/master/docs/guide.md#boolean-arguments)

Pitch

--flag should work the same as --flag yes or --flag true

Alternatives

[mauvilsa]

Certainly could be implemented. It is a commonly used behavior in many CLIs. This is already available with ActionYesNo, but not when an argument is created from a type hint.

Note that adding this feature introduces edge cases which might make the CLI usage worse. If true/false is required, when it is not given, there is always an error including [--bool {true,false}] and --bool: expected one argument. Maybe not the best of messages, but mistakes don't lead to executing the process with unintended parameters. However, making the value optional, can lead to silent mistakes. Which is why there is a warning about this in the fire documentation https://github.com/google/python-fire/blob/master/docs/guide.md#boolean-arguments.

For consistency this would need to work with a bool type, but also for more complex types, e.g. bool | str | None. The behavior for all possible cases needs to be clearly defined and be intuitive for users.