[BUG] Panel docstring says the "box" parameter is optional, when it is not

[kotfu]

• I've checked docs and closed issues for possible solutions.
• I can't find my issue in the FAQ.
• I also checked open issues and didn't see anything like this

Describe the bug

Printing a Panel with box=None raises an AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'substitute'

import rich.console
import rich.panel

c = rich.console.Console()
c.print(rich.panel.Panel("Hello there."))
c.print(rich.panel.Panel("General Kenobi.", box=rich.box.DOUBLE))
c.print(rich.panel.Panel("You are a bold one.", box=None))

Platform

Click to expand

What platform (Win/Linux/Mac) are you running on? What terminal software are you using?

MacOS 15.2 on Mac Studio with Apple M1 Max. Terminal software is iTerm. Python version 3.13.1.

I may ask you to copy and paste the output of the following commands. It may save some time if you do it now.

If you're using Rich in a terminal:

python -m rich.diagnose
pip freeze | grep rich

╭───────────────────────── <class 'rich.console.Console'> ─────────────────────────╮
│ A high level console interface.                                                  │
│                                                                                  │
│ ╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮ │
│ │ <console width=100 ColorSystem.TRUECOLOR>                                    │ │
│ ╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯ │
│                                                                                  │
│     color_system = 'truecolor'                                                   │
│         encoding = 'utf-8'                                                       │
│             file = <_io.TextIOWrapper name='<stdout>' mode='w' encoding='utf-8'> │
│           height = 25                                                            │
│    is_alt_screen = False                                                         │
│ is_dumb_terminal = False                                                         │
│   is_interactive = True                                                          │
│       is_jupyter = False                                                         │
│      is_terminal = True                                                          │
│   legacy_windows = False                                                         │
│         no_color = False                                                         │
│          options = ConsoleOptions(                                               │
│                        size=ConsoleDimensions(width=100, height=25),             │
│                        legacy_windows=False,                                     │
│                        min_width=1,                                              │
│                        max_width=100,                                            │
│                        is_terminal=True,                                         │
│                        encoding='utf-8',                                         │
│                        max_height=25,                                            │
│                        justify=None,                                             │
│                        overflow=None,                                            │
│                        no_wrap=False,                                            │
│                        highlight=None,                                           │
│                        markup=None,                                              │
│                        height=None                                               │
│                    )                                                             │
│            quiet = False                                                         │
│           record = False                                                         │
│         safe_box = True                                                          │
│             size = ConsoleDimensions(width=100, height=25)                       │
│        soft_wrap = False                                                         │
│           stderr = False                                                         │
│            style = None                                                          │
│         tab_size = 8                                                             │
│            width = 100                                                           │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭─── <class 'rich._windows.WindowsConsoleFeatures'> ────╮
│ Windows features available.                           │
│                                                       │
│ ╭───────────────────────────────────────────────────╮ │
│ │ WindowsConsoleFeatures(vt=False, truecolor=False) │ │
│ ╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────╯ │
│                                                       │
│ truecolor = False                                     │
│        vt = False                                     │
╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭────── Environment Variables ───────╮
│ {                                  │
│     'TERM': 'xterm-256color',      │
│     'COLORTERM': 'truecolor',      │
│     'CLICOLOR': None,              │
│     'NO_COLOR': None,              │
│     'TERM_PROGRAM': 'iTerm.app',   │
│     'COLUMNS': None,               │
│     'LINES': None,                 │
│     'JUPYTER_COLUMNS': None,       │
│     'JUPYTER_LINES': None,         │
│     'JPY_PARENT_PID': None,        │
│     'VSCODE_VERBOSE_LOGGING': None │
│ }                                  │
╰────────────────────────────────────╯
platform="Darwin"
rich==13.9.4
rich-argparse==1.6.0

[willmcgugan]

The box parameter doesn't accept None, which you can see from the reference.

[willmcgugan]

Ah, the docstring is in error. The box isn't optional, contrary to the docstring.

[kotfu]

Gotcha. I'm happy to make a PR.

[github-actions]

I hope we solved your problem.

If you like using Rich, you might also enjoy Textual