Python has the -m flag, which locates a module and runs it as a script. And the standard library is full of modules that turn into command line utilities ready to use, with nothing to install.
Serve the current folder over HTTP:
python -m http.server
Format (and validate) a JSON:
echo '{"name": "cassio", "language": "python"}' | python -m json.tool
See the calendar for the year in your terminal:
python -m calendar 2026
You have probably already used the flag without noticing, in commands like python -m venv .venv or python -m pip install. It is the same mechanism: -m locates the module on the import path and executes it as the main program, with __name__ set to "__main__" (when the target is a package, what runs is its __main__.py).
Want the full list? Link to heading
I went after every standard library module that works this way and catalogued it all in the awesome-python-modules-as-script repository. There is a fake SMTP server for testing, compression with gzip, benchmarking with timeit and much more.
That’s it, folks!
See you next time!
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