Vinod

Ultra-lightweight, zero-dependency Python WSGI framework. Flask-style routing. Django-style auth. Built on the Python Standard Library.

Why Vinod?

• Zero dependencies — pure Python stdlib
• ~5-8 MB idle RAM — runs happily on 512MB hosts like Serv00
• Flask-style routing — decorator-based, familiar syntax
• Secure auth built in — PBKDF2 password hashing + DB-backed sessions
• WSGI native — works with Passenger, Gunicorn, uWSGI

Install

pip install vinod

Quick Start

from vinod import Vinod, Response, login_required

app = Vinod(db_path="app.db")

@app.route("/")
def home(req):
    return Response.html("<h1>Hello from Vinod</h1>")

@app.route("/dashboard")
@login_required
def dashboard(req):
    return Response.html(f"<h1>Hi {req.user['username']}</h1>")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run()

Routing and responses

Routes accept named path parameters and one or more HTTP methods:

@app.route("/users/<username>", methods=("GET",))
def user(req, username):
    return Response.json({"username": username})

profile_url = app.url_for("user", username="Jane Doe")

Path values generated by url_for are URL-encoded. Requests to a known path with an unsupported method receive 405 Method Not Allowed and an Allow header. Static files are served from static/ at /static/; files are streamed in chunks and paths are checked against the configured static root.

Request provides query, headers, cookies, body, form(), and json(). Malformed JSON request bodies receive 400 Bad Request. Response provides text(), html(), json(), redirect(), and file().

JSON request validation

Use Request.validate_json() to require a JSON object with specific required fields and Python types. Malformed JSON and invalid values return a JSON 400 Bad Request response:

@app.route("/api/items", methods=("POST",))
def create_item(req):
    item = req.validate_json({"name": str, "quantity": int})
    return Response.json(item, "201 Created")

Sessions and CSRF

req.session is a server-side dictionary persisted in SQLite and identified by a signed, HTTP-only cookie. Set a stable secret key when creating the app so session cookies survive process restarts:

app = Vinod(db_path="app.db", secret_key="load-this-from-your-environment")

Protect state-changing routes with @csrf_protect. Render req.csrf_token() into a hidden form field named _csrf_token, or send it in the X-Csrf-Token header for JSON requests:

@app.route("/submit", methods=("POST",))
@csrf_protect
def submit(req):
    req.session["submitted"] = True
    return Response.json({"ok": True})

Safe methods (GET, HEAD, OPTIONS, and TRACE) do not require a token. Keep state-changing actions on non-safe methods and use CSRF protection for browser-session routes.

Templates, middleware, and errors

Templates are UTF-8 files under templates/ by default. {{ name }} values are HTML-escaped automatically; this intentionally supports variable substitution only, not template logic:

<h1>Hello, {{ username }}</h1>

return app.render_template("hello.html", username="Ada")

Register standard WSGI middleware with a factory that accepts and returns a WSGI callable:

def request_id_middleware(next_app):
    def middleware(environ, start_response):
        environ["HTTP_X_REQUEST_ID"] = "example"
        return next_app(environ, start_response)
    return middleware

app.add_middleware(request_id_middleware)

Error handlers may be registered for HTTP status codes or exception classes:

@app.errorhandler(ValueError)
def invalid_value(req):
    return Response.json({"error": "invalid value"}, "400 Bad Request")

License

MIT