Add support for backtick colorisation in argparse help text

Author: hugovk

Doc/library/argparse.rst

@@ -637,25 +637,21 @@ are set.
 
 .. versionadded:: 3.14
 
-To highlight inline code in your description or epilog text, you can use
-backticks::
+To highlight inline code in your description, epilog, or argument ``help``
+text, you can use backticks::
 
    >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
    ...     formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter,
    ...     epilog='''Examples:
    ...   `python -m myapp --verbose`
    ...   `python -m myapp --config settings.json`
    ... ''')
+   >>> parser.add_argument('--foo', help='set the `foo` value')
 
 When colors are enabled, the text inside backticks will be displayed in a
 distinct color to help examples stand out. When colors are disabled, backticks
 are preserved as-is, which is readable in plain text.
 
-.. note::
-
-   Backtick markup only applies to description and epilog text. It does not
-   apply to individual argument ``help`` strings.
-
 .. versionadded:: 3.15
 
 

Doc/whatsnew/3.15.rst

@@ -715,9 +715,9 @@ argparse
   default to ``True``. This enables suggestions for mistyped arguments by default.
   (Contributed by Jakob Schluse in :gh:`140450`.)
 
-* Added backtick markup support in description and epilog text to highlight
+* Added backtick markup support in help text to highlight
   inline code when color output is enabled.
-  (Contributed by Savannah Ostrowski in :gh:`142390`.)
+  (Contributed by Savannah Ostrowski and Hugo van Kemenade in :gh:`142389`.)
 
 
 array

Lib/argparse.py

@@ -682,7 +682,7 @@ def _format_args(self, action, default_metavar):
     def _expand_help(self, action):
         help_string = self._get_help_string(action)
         if '%' not in help_string:
-            return help_string
+            return self._apply_text_markup(help_string)
         params = dict(vars(action), prog=self._prog)
         for name in list(params):
             value = params[name]
@@ -726,7 +726,9 @@ def colorize(match):
             # bare %s etc. - format with full params dict, no colorization
             return spec % params
 
-        return _re.sub(fmt_spec, colorize, help_string, flags=_re.VERBOSE)
+        return self._apply_text_markup(
+            _re.sub(fmt_spec, colorize, help_string, flags=_re.VERBOSE)
+        )
 
     def _iter_indented_subactions(self, action):
         try:

Lib/test/test_argparse.py

@@ -7696,6 +7696,37 @@ def test_backtick_markup_special_regex_chars(self):
         help_text = parser.format_help()
         self.assertIn(f'{prog_extra}grep "foo.*bar" | sort{reset}', help_text)
 
+    def test_backtick_markup_in_argument_help(self):
+        parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog="PROG", color=True)
+        parser.add_argument("--foo", help="set the `foo` value")
+
+        prog_extra = self.theme.prog_extra
+        reset = self.theme.reset
+
+        help_text = parser.format_help()
+        self.assertIn(f"set the {prog_extra}foo{reset} value", help_text)
+        self.assertNotIn("`", help_text)
+
+    def test_backtick_markup_in_argument_help_with_format(self):
+        parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog="PROG", color=True)
+        parser.add_argument(
+            "--foo", default="bar", help="set `foo` (default: %(default)s)"
+        )
+
+        prog_extra = self.theme.prog_extra
+        reset = self.theme.reset
+
+        help_text = parser.format_help()
+        self.assertIn(f"set {prog_extra}foo{reset}", help_text)
+
+    def test_backtick_markup_in_argument_help_color_disabled(self):
+        parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog="PROG", color=False)
+        parser.add_argument("--foo", help="set the `foo` value")
+
+        help_text = parser.format_help()
+        self.assertIn("set the `foo` value", help_text)
+        self.assertNotIn("\x1b[", help_text)
+
     def test_help_with_format_specifiers(self):
         # GH-142950: format specifiers like %x should work with color=True
         parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG', color=True)

Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-05-04-18-01-35.gh-issue-142389.4Faqpq.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Add backtick markup support in :mod:`argparse` option help text to highlight
+inline code when color output is enabled. Patch by Hugo van Kemenade.