cfx 0.7.0

Lightweight self-documenting configuration classes via Python descriptors.

cfx

Declare configuration fields next to the classes that use them. Each field carries its own default, type checking, and documentation. Compose any set of configs into a larger one, nested or flat, and get serialization, CLI integration, and a self-documenting display for free.

from cfx import Config, Field

class FormatConfig(Config):
    """Output formatting."""
    confid = "format"
    precision: int = Field(6, "Decimal places")
    encoding: str = Field("utf-8", "Output encoding")

class WorkerConfig(Config, components=[FormatConfig]):
    """Worker settings."""
    confid = "worker"
    threads: int = Field(4, "Worker threads", minval=1)
    timeout: float = Field(30.0, "Request timeout in seconds", minval=0.0)

class AppConfig(Config, components=[WorkerConfig]):
    """Application configuration."""
    confid = "app"
    name: str = Field("myapp", "Application name")
    debug: bool = Field(False, "Enable debug output")

cfg = AppConfig()
print(cfg)

AppConfig: Application configuration.
└─ WorkerConfig: Worker settings.
    └─ FormatConfig: Output formatting.
Config       | Key       | Value | Description
-------------+-----------+-------+---------------------------
AppConfig    | name      | myapp | Application name
AppConfig    | debug     | False | Enable debug output
WorkerConfig | threads   | 4     | Worker threads
WorkerConfig | timeout   | 30.0  | Request timeout in seconds
FormatConfig | precision | 6     | Decimal places
FormatConfig | encoding  | utf-8 | Output encoding

• Validated fields — typos and bad values raise immediately at the point of assignment, not silently hours later.
• Self-documenting — print(cfg) renders a tree of the config hierarchy followed by a unified table of all fields, nested included. In Jupyter the same layout renders as HTML automatically via _repr_html_.
• Composable — assemble configs from multiple subsystem configs, nested or flat, with serialization, display, and CLI support throughout.
• Documented — every field carries a doc string shown alongside its value. In large pipelines the same parameter name (e.g. kernel_size) can appear in multiple sub-configs targeting different stages; the doc string and the sub-config namespace keep the purpose clear at each site.
• Views — project a config tree into a custom namespace. Expose a curated subset of fields under new names with ConfigView, auto-generate prefixed aliases with AliasedView, or enforce that two fields always stay in sync with Mirror.
• Serializable — round-trip to/from dict or YAML with one method call.
• CLI-ready — every config exposes add_arguments / from_argparse for argparse and click_options / from_click for Click. Nested sub-configs use dot-notation flags (e.g. --worker.threads).
• Extensible — subclass ConfigField to add your own field types with custom validation and normalization.
• Zero hard dependencies — YAML and Click support are optional.

Installation

pip install cfx

With optional backends:

pip install "cfx[yaml]"   # adds PyYAML
pip install "cfx[click]"  # adds Click
pip install "cfx[all]"    # everything

Quick start

from cfx import Config, Field
from typing import Literal

class ProcessingConfig(Config):
    confid = "processing"
    iterations: int = Field(100, "Number of iterations", minval=1)
    threshold: float = Field(0.5, "Acceptance threshold", minval=0.0, maxval=1.0)
    label: str = Field("run_01", "Human-readable run label")
    mode: Literal["fast", "balanced", "thorough"] = Field("fast", "Processing mode")
    verbose: bool = Field(False, "Enable verbose logging")

cfg = ProcessingConfig()

# Dot access and dict-style access are interchangeable
cfg.iterations = 200
cfg["mode"] = "thorough"

# Bad values raise immediately
cfg.threshold = 1.5   # ValueError: Expected value <= 1.0, got 1.5

# Serialize to dict or YAML
d = cfg.to_dict()
cfg2 = ProcessingConfig.from_dict(d)

# Copy with overrides, diff two instances
modified = cfg.copy(iterations=500)
cfg.diff(modified)   # {'iterations': (200, 500)}

For field types not expressible via annotations — custom coercion, angular ranges, unit normalization — subclass ConfigField and override normalize and validate:

from cfx.types import ConfigField

class Angle(ConfigField):
    def normalize(self, value):
        return float(value) % 360.0   # wrap to [0, 360)

    def validate(self, value):
        if not isinstance(value, float):
            raise TypeError(f"Expected float, got {type(value).__name__!r}")

Views

Project any config tree into a custom namespace — useful when the internal structure is more complex than what a consumer needs to see:

from cfx import Config, Field, ConfigView, Alias, AliasedView

class ProcessingConfig(Config):
    confid = "processing"
    iterations: int = Field(100, "Number of iterations")
    threshold: float = Field(0.5, "Acceptance threshold")

class FormatConfig(Config):
    confid = "format"
    precision: int = Field(6, "Decimal places")
    encoding: str = Field("utf-8", "Output encoding")

class PipelineConfig(Config, components=[ProcessingConfig, FormatConfig]):
    confid = "pipeline"

# Hand-written curated view
class RunSummary(ConfigView):
    n_iter   = Alias(PipelineConfig.processing.iterations)
    decimals = Alias(PipelineConfig.processing.threshold)

cfg = PipelineConfig()
v = RunSummary(cfg)
v.n_iter    # 100
v.n_iter = 500
cfg.processing.iterations  # 500 — write goes through

# Auto-generated prefixed view (owns its own component instances)
class JobView(AliasedView, components=[ProcessingConfig, FormatConfig]):
    pass

jv = JobView()
jv.processing_iterations = 300
jv.format_precision = 3

Environment variables

Back any field with an environment variable — the value is read lazily, so the same class works across environments without subclassing:

from cfx import Config, Field

class ServiceConfig(Config):
    host: str = Field("localhost", "Database host", env="DB_HOST")
    port: int = Field(5432, "Port", env="DB_PORT")

# DB_HOST=prod.example.com python run.py
cfg = ServiceConfig()
cfg.host   # 'prod.example.com' — from env, no code change needed

CLI

Every config exposes add_arguments / from_argparse for argparse and click_options / from_click for Click. Nested sub-configs use dot-notation flags automatically:

import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
ProcessingConfig.add_arguments(parser)
cfg = ProcessingConfig.from_argparse(parser.parse_args())
# python run.py --iterations 200 --mode thorough --no-verbose

License

GPL-3.0-only — see LICENSE.