How to Create a Rich Console Progress Bar Mock in Python

This code uses Rich's Console and Progress API to build a simulated progress bar for a long-running task, updating progress and printing status messages.

Easy Python 3.8+ Aug 9, 2026 Modern tooling 11 views 0 copies

rich progress-bar cli console

Requires third-party packages — install first

pip install rich

Python code

28 lines

Python 3.8+

import time
from rich.console import Console
from rich.progress import Progress, BarColumn, TextColumn, PercentageColumn

console = Console()

def run_simulation():
    console.print("[bold cyan]Starting simulated task...[/bold cyan]")
    
    with Progress(
        TextColumn("[bold blue]{task.description}[/bold blue]"),
        BarColumn(bar_width=30),
        PercentageColumn(),
        console=console
    ) as progress:
        task = progress.add_task("Processing items", total=100)
        
        for i in range(100):
            time.sleep(0.05)
            progress.update(task, advance=1)
            
            if i == 49:
                console.print("[yellow]Halfway there![/yellow]")
    
    console.print("[bold green]Task complete![/bold green]")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    run_simulation()

Output

stdout

Starting simulated task...
[progress bar: ################################                              ] 50%
Halfway there!
[progress bar: ############################################################] 100%
Task complete!

How it works

Rich's Progress context manager creates a live-updating progress bar that refreshes automatically. add_task registers a new task with a total count, and update advances its progress in a loop. Custom columns like TextColumn, BarColumn, and PercentageColumn control the display format. The console.print calls in the loop interleave text with the progress bar, appearing above it. When the with block exits, the bar is finalized to 100%.

Common mistakes

Forgetting to call `update` in every iteration, causing the bar to stall.
Using `total` as a count of steps instead of units, leading to premature completion.
Nesting progress bars without different task IDs, which Rich will reject.
Printing to console inside the loop without using Rich's print, which may break layout.

Variations

Use `track` from rich.progress for a simple one-liner progress loop.
Define a custom Column class to show elapsed time or custom metadata.

Real-world use cases

Simulating a long-running data processing pipeline to test CLI output appearance without real work.
Creating a visual demo of a progress bar during a conference talk or tutorial.
Adding a placeholder progress indicator in a script while waiting for a real backend to be implemented.

How to Create a Rich Console Progress Bar Mock in Python

Python code

Output

How it works

Common mistakes

Variations

Real-world use cases

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