Output formats¶

pipdeptree supports multiple output formats via -o FMT (or --output FMT). All examples below use --packages pytest to keep the output concise.

text (default)¶

Unicode box-drawing tree:

$ pipdeptree --packages pytest
pytest==9.0.2
├── iniconfig [required: >=1.0.1, installed: 2.3.0]
├── packaging [required: >=22, installed: 26.0]
├── pluggy [required: >=1.5,<2, installed: 1.6.0]
└── Pygments [required: >=2.7.2, installed: 2.19.2]

rich¶

Enhanced terminal output with colors and checkmarks (requires pipdeptree[rich]):

$ pipdeptree --packages pytest -o rich
pytest==9.0.2
┣━━ ✓ iniconfig required: >=1.0.1 installed: 2.3.0
┣━━ ✓ packaging required: >=22 installed: 26.0
┣━━ ✓ pluggy required: >=1.5,<2 installed: 1.6.0
┗━━ ✓ Pygments required: >=2.7.2 installed: 2.19.2

freeze¶

pip-compatible flat format with indentation showing hierarchy:

$ pipdeptree --packages pytest -o freeze
pytest==9.0.2
  iniconfig==2.3.0
  packaging==26.0
  pluggy==1.6.0
  Pygments==2.19.2

json¶

Flat JSON array with package and dependency objects:

$ pipdeptree --packages pytest -o json

[
    {
        "package": {
            "key": "pytest",
            "package_name": "pytest",
            "installed_version": "9.0.2"
        },
        "dependencies": [
            {
                "key": "iniconfig",
                "package_name": "iniconfig",
                "installed_version": "2.3.0",
                "required_version": ">=1.0.1"
            },
            {
                "key": "pluggy",
                "package_name": "pluggy",
                "installed_version": "1.6.0",
                "required_version": ">=1.5,<2"
            }
        ]
    }
]

With --metadata or --computed, package dicts include extra fields:

$ pipdeptree --packages rich -o json --metadata license --computed size,unique-deps-count,unique-deps-names

{
    "package": {
        "key": "rich",
        "package_name": "rich",
        "installed_version": "14.3.3",
        "metadata": {
            "license": "MIT License"
        },
        "computed": {
            "size": "1.2 MB",
            "unique_deps_count": 2,
            "unique_deps_names": [
                "markdown-it-py",
                "mdurl"
            ]
        }
    },
    "dependencies": [
        {
            "key": "markdown-it-py",
            "package_name": "markdown-it-py",
            "installed_version": "4.0.0",
            "required_version": ">=2.2.0"
        },
        {
            "key": "pygments",
            "package_name": "Pygments",
            "installed_version": "2.19.2",
            "required_version": ">=2.13.0,<3.0.0"
        }
    ]
}

json-tree¶

Nested JSON mirroring the text tree layout:

$ pipdeptree --packages pytest -o json-tree

[
    {
        "key": "pytest",
        "package_name": "pytest",
        "installed_version": "9.0.2",
        "required_version": "9.0.2",
        "dependencies": [
            {
                "key": "iniconfig",
                "package_name": "iniconfig",
                "installed_version": "2.3.0",
                "required_version": ">=1.0.1",
                "dependencies": []
            }
        ]
    }
]

mermaid¶

Mermaid flowchart diagram:

$ pipdeptree --packages pytest -o mermaid

flowchart TD
    classDef missing stroke-dasharray: 5
    iniconfig["iniconfig<br/>2.3.0"]
    packaging["packaging<br/>26.0"]
    pluggy["pluggy<br/>1.6.0"]
    pygments["Pygments<br/>2.19.2"]
    pytest["pytest<br/>9.0.2"]
    pytest -- ">=1.0.1" --> iniconfig
    pytest -- ">=1.5,<2" --> pluggy
    pytest -- ">=2.7.2" --> pygments
    pytest -- ">=22" --> packaging

This renders as:

        flowchart TD
    classDef missing stroke-dasharray: 5
    iniconfig["iniconfig<br/>2.3.0"]
    packaging["packaging<br/>26.0"]
    pluggy["pluggy<br/>1.6.0"]
    pygments["Pygments<br/>2.19.2"]
    pytest["pytest<br/>9.0.2"]
    pytest -- ">=1.0.1" --> iniconfig
    pytest -- ">=1.5,<2" --> pluggy
    pytest -- ">=2.7.2" --> pygments
    pytest -- ">=22" --> packaging

graphviz¶

Generate Graphviz output in various formats (requires pipdeptree[graphviz]). The dot format produces the graph description language:

$ pipdeptree --packages pytest -o graphviz-dot
digraph {
    iniconfig [label="iniconfig\n2.3.0"]
    packaging [label="packaging\n26.0"]
    pluggy [label="pluggy\n1.6.0"]
    pygments [label="Pygments\n2.19.2"]
    pytest -> iniconfig [label=">=1.0.1"]
    pytest -> packaging [label=">=22"]
    pytest -> pluggy [label=">=1.5,<2"]
    pytest -> pygments [label=">=2.7.2"]
    pytest [label="pytest\n9.0.2"]
}

Other formats render the graph directly to binary output:

$ pipdeptree -o graphviz-pdf > dependencies.pdf
$ pipdeptree -o graphviz-png > dependencies.png
$ pipdeptree -o graphviz-svg > dependencies.svg

The format is specified as graphviz-<format> where <format> is any Graphviz output format (dot, pdf, png, svg, jpeg, etc.).

summary¶

--summary replaces the tree with a single-block health report of the environment – for CI gates and at-a-glance audits rather than per-package inspection. It is a separate axis from the renderers above: --summary chooses what to show, while -o chooses how to style it. The styles that make sense for a flat report are text (the default), rich and json; the tree-only renderers (mermaid, graphviz, freeze, json-tree) are rejected. Run it over the whole environment, or scope it with --packages like the examples above:

$ pipdeptree --packages pytest --summary
total packages:           5
direct dependencies:      1
transitive dependencies:  4
max depth:                2
cyclic dependencies:      0
missing dependencies:     0
conflicting dependencies: 0 (0 edges)
licenses:                 (Apache-2.0 OR BSD-2-Clause): 1, (BSD-2-Clause): 1, (MIT License): 1, (MIT): 2
unknown licenses:         0
copyleft licenses:        no
min requires-python:      3.10
total size:               6.0 MB

For terminals, --summary -o rich prints the same metrics as a styled table. For automation, -o json emits a machine-readable object:

$ pipdeptree --packages pytest --summary -o json

{
  "total_packages": 5,
  "direct_dependencies": 1,
  "transitive_dependencies": 4,
  "max_depth": 2,
  "cyclic_dependencies": 0,
  "missing_dependencies": 0,
  "conflicting_dependencies": {
    "packages": 0,
    "edges": 0
  },
  "licenses": {
    "breakdown": {
      "(Apache-2.0 OR BSD-2-Clause)": 1,
      "(BSD-2-Clause)": 1,
      "(MIT License)": 1,
      "(MIT)": 2
    },
    "unknown": 0,
    "copyleft": false
  },
  "min_requires_python": "3.10",
  "total_size": "6.0 MB",
  "total_size_raw": 6320765
}

--summary composes with the tree sources too: pipdeptree from-lock pylock.toml --summary and pipdeptree from-index 'flask' --summary summarize a resolved tree. The graph-structural metrics (the first five) come from the tree alone and work everywhere. The installed-environment metrics (missing/conflicting deps, licenses, requires-python, size) read real distribution metadata and files, which the from-index/from-lock synthetic trees do not carry, so under those subcommands they report n/a (text) or are omitted (JSON) rather than a misleading zero. See How pipdeptree works for the reasoning.

Every format above also works with the from-index subcommand (alias i), e.g. pipdeptree from-index --requirements requirements.txt -o json to render a tree resolved from the package index without installing, and with the from-lock subcommand (alias l), e.g. pipdeptree from-lock pylock.toml -o json to render an already-resolved PEP 751 lock offline. See Usage patterns for details.