dronekit2

dronekit2 is a maintained fork of DroneKit-Python, which has had no release since 2019 and does not import on modern Python. This fork keeps the dronekit import path and the attribute/observer API developers already know, modernizes the packaging and internals, and fixes real defects found along the way. See CHANGELOG.md and docs/about/migrating_v3.rst for exactly what changed from the 2.9.x line.

DroneKit-Python helps you create apps for UAVs. It provides programmatic access to a connected vehicle's telemetry, state and parameter information over MAVLink, and supports both mission management and direct control over vehicle movement.

Installing

Requires Python 3.9+.

pip install dronekit2

Import name is unchanged:

import dronekit

Not yet on PyPI? Install straight from this repo:

pip install git+https://github.com/Onikore/dronekit2.git

Getting started

from dronekit import connect

# Connect to a vehicle (real or simulated) speaking MAVLink on this UDP endpoint.
vehicle = connect("127.0.0.1:14550", wait_ready=True)

# Use the returned Vehicle object to query device state - e.g. to get the mode:
print(f"Mode: {vehicle.mode.name}")

vehicle.close()

See docs/guide/quick_start.rst for a full walkthrough (including how to run this against ArduPilot SITL), docs/guide/ for the rest of the guide, and examples/ for runnable end-to-end scripts.

Documentation

Docs live under docs/ as reStructuredText and are not yet hosted anywhere - browse the source on GitHub, or build them locally:

pip install -e ".[docs]"
sphinx-build -b html docs docs/_build/html

• Guide
• API reference
• Examples
• Migrating from 2.9.x

Testing against a real vehicle

The test suite skips anything that needs a live vehicle unless DRONEKIT_TEST_CONNECTION is set — it accepts either an ArduPilot SITL connection string or a real flight controller over serial. See dronekit/test/README.md.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, and the Code of Conduct before participating.

Questions and bug reports: open an issue. Security vulnerabilities: see SECURITY.md rather than filing a public issue.

Licence

dronekit2 is made available under the Apache 2.0 License.

Copyright 2015 3D Robotics, Inc. Portions Copyright 2026 the dronekit2 contributors.