arkitekt-next 1.4.0

client for the arkitekt_next platform

arkitekt-next

Turn your Python functions into apps you can orchestrate, share, and scale.

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What is Arkitekt?

Arkitekt is an open platform for building, connecting, and orchestrating computational apps. arkitekt-next is its Python client: a framework that takes your ordinary Python functions and exposes them as remotely callable, orchestratable building blocks — without you having to write servers, APIs, message queues, or UIs.

Annotate a function, run your app, and it becomes available on an Arkitekt server where it can be:

• Called from anywhere — other apps, notebooks, scripts, or the web UI.
• Composed into real-time workflows that wire your functions together.
• Given a GUI automatically, generated from your Python type hints.
• Shared with your team behind central authentication and permissions.
• Packaged and deployed as a Docker container with a single command.

Arkitekt grew out of the needs of data-intensive science (it has first-class extensions for microscopy, imaging, and graph data), but the core is domain-agnostic — any Python workload fits.

📚 The best place to understand the platform and its concepts is the documentation at arkitekt.live.

Installation

pip install "arkitekt-next[all]"

This installs everything, including the arkitekt-next command line interface used to create, develop, containerize, and deploy apps.

Prefer a lean install? Pick only the extras you need:

pip install "arkitekt-next[cli]"            # the CLI + app development tooling
pip install "arkitekt-next[mikro]"          # microscopy / imaging data
pip install "arkitekt-next[kabinet]"        # Docker packaging & deployment
pip install "arkitekt-next[fluss]"          # workflow orchestration
pip install "arkitekt-next[elektro]"       # electrophysiology data
pip install "arkitekt-next[alpaka]"         # want to talk to LLMs? This one's for you.

arkitekt-next requires Python 3.11+ and builds on the asyncio and pydantic stacks.

Quickstart

1. Create an app

mkdir my-app && cd my-app
arkitekt-next app init

This walks you through creating an app and writes a manifest (identifier, version, entrypoint, scopes) into .arkitekt_next/.

2. Register your functions

Any function you decorate with @register becomes a callable building block on the platform. Its arguments and return values are inferred from your type hints — which also drive validation, documentation, and the auto-generated GUI.

from arkitekt_next import register


@register
def greet(name: str, excited: bool = False) -> str:
    """Greet a person by name.

    Args:
        name: Who to greet.
        excited: Add some enthusiasm.
    """
    greeting = f"Hello, {name}"
    return greeting + "!" if excited else greeting

3. Run it

arkitekt-next app run dev

run dev connects your app to a local or remote Arkitekt server with hot reloading — edit your code and the app reloads automatically. When you are ready for production, use arkitekt-next app run prod.

The CLI

arkitekt-next ships a batteries-included CLI for the whole app lifecycle:

Command	What it does
init	Scaffold a new app and its manifest.
run dev	Run the app locally with hot reloading.
run prod	Run the app in production mode.
gen	Generate typed API clients from GraphQL schemas.
manifest	Inspect and manage your app's manifest.
inspect	Inspect an app's actions, variables, and requirements.
call	Call registered functions on a remote server.
plugin	Build, validate, and publish your app as a deployable plugin.

See the full reference in docs/cli.md.

Working with data

Arkitekt automatically serializes and documents standard Python types — str, bool, int, float, Enum, list, and dict. For heavier data (images, arrays, large objects), the platform follows a store-by-reference model: data lives in a central, scalable store and only a lightweight reference travels between apps. Extensions like mikro provide ready-made structures for this, and you can define your own.

See the documentation for details on custom data structures and storage backends.

Documentation & links

• 📚 Documentation: arkitekt.live
• 🧰 CLI reference: docs/cli.md
• 📦 PyPI: pypi.org/project/arkitekt-next
• 🐙 Source: github.com/jhnnsrs/arkitekt_next

License

arkitekt-next is released under the MIT License.