rich-tree

Getting Started

Requirements

Requirement	Minimum	Notes
Python	3.6+	Tested on 3.6 – 3.14
Nerd Font	Any Nerd Font v3	Required for icons to render correctly
OS	Any	Windows, macOS, Linux

Tip: If you skip installing a Nerd Font, the tree still works but icons will appear as squares or question marks. Run rtree --onboard to get guided setup help.

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Installation

From PyPI (recommended)

pip install rich-tree

From GitHub (latest development version)

pip install git+https://github.com/wasi-master/rich-tree

With pipx (isolated, recommended for CLI tools)

pipx install rich-tree

Or run it without installing at all:

pipx run rich-tree .

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First Run

Once installed, you can immediately run:

rtree

This displays the tree for the current directory.

To display a specific directory:

rtree /path/to/directory

Or using python -m:

python -m rtree /path/to/directory

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Nerd Font Setup

rich-tree uses Nerd Fonts for its beautiful icon set. You need to:

1. Download a Nerd Font from nerdfonts.com/font-downloads
   (Recommended: JetBrainsMono Nerd Font, CaskaydiaCove, or FiraCode Nerd Font)
2. Install the font on your system.
3. Set your terminal’s font to the installed Nerd Font.

Run the onboarding wizard to check if your icons are rendering correctly:

rtree --onboard

If icons show as boxes or ?, follow the instructions in the Onboarding Wizard guide.

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Aliasing tree to rtree

You can alias the classic tree command to rtree so existing habits and scripts keep working.

Bash / Zsh

Add this line to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:

alias tree="rtree"

Then reload your shell:

source ~/.bashrc   # or ~/.zshrc

Fish

alias tree="rtree"
funcsave tree

PowerShell

Add to your PowerShell profile:

New-Alias tree rtree

Windows CMD

Create a file tree.bat in C:\Windows\System32 with content:

@echo off
call rtree %*

Tip: The interactive onboarding wizard (rtree --onboard) provides shell-specific alias instructions automatically.

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Dependencies

rich-tree depends on these Python packages (installed automatically):

Package	Purpose
rich	Beautifully formatted terminal output, tree widget
click	CLI argument/option parsing
rich-click	Rich-formatted --help output
questionary	Interactive prompts in the onboarding wizard
shellingham	Detects the active shell for alias instructions

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Next Steps

• Read the CLI Reference to learn all available flags.
• Explore Features for in-depth explanations of each capability.
• Run rtree --onboard for a guided interactive setup.

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