Build your own Command Line with ANSI escape codes Everyone is used to programs printing out output in a terminal that scrolls as new text appears, but that's not all your can do: your program can color your text, move the cursor up, down, left or right, or clear portions of the screen if you are going to re-print them later. This is what lets programs like Git implement its dynamic progress indicators, and Vim or Bash implement their editors that let you modify already-displayed text without scrolling the terminal. There are libraries like Readline, JLine, or the Python Prompt Toolkit that help you do this in various programming languages, but you can also do it yourself. This post will explore the basics of how you can control the terminal from any command-line program, with examples in Python, and how your own code can directly make use of all the special features the terminal has to offer.