# `mix help`
[🔗](https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/blob/7ff272706afc522e74121493b7166719985cb099/lib/mix/lib/mix/tasks/help.ex#L5)

Prints documentation for tasks, aliases, modules, and applications.

## Examples

Without an explicit argument, this task lists tasks/aliases:

    $ mix help                  - prints all aliases, tasks and their short descriptions
    $ mix help --search PATTERN - prints all tasks and aliases that contain PATTERN in the name
    $ mix help --names          - prints all task names and aliases (useful for autocompletion)
    $ mix help --aliases        - prints all aliases

You can access documentation for a given task/alias:

    $ mix help TASK/ALIAS       - prints full docs for the given task/alias

But also for modules, functions, and applications:

    $ mix help MODULE           - prints the documentation for the given module
    $ mix help MODULE.FUN       - prints the documentation for the given module+function
    $ mix help app:APP          - prints a summary of all public modules in application
    $ mix help c:MODULE.NAME    - prints the documentation for the given callback
    $ mix help t:MODULE.NAME    - prints the documentation for the given type

## Colors

When possible, `mix help` is going to use coloring for formatting
the help information. The formatting can be customized by configuring
the Mix application either inside your project (in `config/config.exs`)
or by using the local config (in `~/.mix/config.exs`).

For example, to disable color, one may use the configuration:

    [mix: [colors: [enabled: false]]]

The available color options are:

  * `:enabled`         - shows ANSI formatting (defaults to `IO.ANSI.enabled?/0`)
  * `:doc_code`        - the attributes for code blocks (cyan, bright)
  * `:doc_inline_code` - inline code (cyan)
  * `:doc_headings`    - h1 and h2 (yellow, bright)
  * `:doc_title`       - the overall heading for the output (reverse, yellow, bright)
  * `:doc_bold`        - (bright)
  * `:doc_underline`   - (underline)

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*Consult [api-reference.md](api-reference.md) for complete listing*