Edit printed terminal text using ANSI escape codes.

Traditional print() writes output that cannot be changed once printed. mutable-print fixes that you can modify, replace, append, clear, or transform text after it’s been printed.

Perfect for:

• Dynamic CLI output: progress bars, live status updates, etc.
• Retroactive edits: fix or adjust lines even after more output follows.
• Readable terminals: no messy reprints or repeated lines.
• Rich text operations: prepend, append, regex replacement, upper/lower transforms.

All achieved using ANSI escape sequences to move the cursor and redraw content.

pip install mutable-print

Creates a mutable print object, prints the initial content immediately, and returns a handle to modify it later.

from mutable_print import mutable_print

line = mutable_print("Loading...", flush=True)
line("Done!")  # Update the same printed line

A mutable_print instance that can be updated or transformed.

Update the content and reprint from this line onward.

line("Processing...", sep=" ", end="\n")

Replace all (or a limited number of) occurrences of a substring in the current content.

line.replace("fail", "success", 1)

Append text to the end of the content.

line.append("...done")

Prepend text to the beginning of the content.

line.prepend("[INFO]")

Clear the current content (sets it to an empty string).

line.clear()

Replace the entire content with new text.

line.set("New content")

Convert the current content to uppercase.

line.upper()

Convert the current content to lowercase.

line.lower()

Perform a regular expression substitution on the content.

line.regex_replace(r"\d+", "42")

Retrieve the current content.

text = line.get()

String representation of the current content. Called automatically by str(line).

Developer-friendly representation of the object:

mutable_print('Your content here')

1. Basic Update
2. Clean and Efficient Loading
3. Replace Text
4. Append / Prepend
5. Clearing and Retrieving Content
6. Colored Text

Internally, mutable-print:

• Keeps a global list of all printed lines.
• Calculates the cursor position relative to past prints.
• Moves the cursor up using \033[A and clears lines with \033[2K.
• Reprints from the updated index to maintain correct order.

This enables retroactive edits even after printing additional lines.

Developed with ❤️ by PcoiDev Uses only standard Python modules (sys, re, typing).

This project is licensed under the MIT License.