Today I got the following response from Lars Wirzenius, the original upstream author of python-cliapp.
[Lars Wirzenius] > I haven't used, developed, or maintained cliapp as upstream in many > years, either. It's dead. I do not intend to ever touch the package, > as upstream, in any way, for any reason. There is no public upstream > Git repository. I with Debian would remove it or else that someone > takes over the project as upstream. I am sharing it here with approval from Lars, as it seem relevant for anyone considering to adopt the package in Debian. -- Happy hacking Petter Reinholdtsen