gini-core

The shared foundation of GINI: the topology model and the tamper-evident proof format. Pure Python, no Qt, no container runtime.

You do not normally install this yourself — gini-toolkit (the gBuilder desktop app) and gini-teaching-center (the course server) both depend on it.

pip install gini-core

Why it is its own package

The Teaching Center runs on a headless VM and must verify student submissions. Verification needs the proof format; it does not need a GUI. Without this split, installing the course server would drag ~400MB of PySide6 onto a server that never draws a pixel — so the server install is 2.3MB instead.

The second reason matters more. gBuilder writes proofs and the Teaching Center verifies them. Those two implementations must agree exactly, forever — a hash chain that disagrees by one field is a student's work rejected. Keeping the format in one distribution both sides depend on means there is no second copy to drift.

What is in it

gini/domain/
  topology.py     Topology, DeviceInstance, Link — the model gBuilder saves and loads
  devices.py      the device/element registry (networking + cloud)
  proof.py        the hash chain, ticket codes, and receipts
  persistence.py  the on-disk .gini project format

gini.domain.proof is the interesting one. A proof is an append-only chain in which every entry commits to the one before it, so a recorded session cannot be edited after the fact without breaking the chain. It is bound to the activity code it was recorded under, and its submit entry carries a SHA-256 of the topology — which is what makes a stolen project file worthless: the file and the code are cryptographically the same claim.

The receipt a student reads off the screen is 40 bits of the chain's MAC, rendered as XXXX-XXXX. gBuilder and the server derive it identically from the proof itself, so a receipt handed to an instructor before the upload lands is still the right receipt after it does.

Namespace package

gini is an implicit namespace package shared with gini-toolkit: this distribution owns gini.domain, the app owns gini.ui, gini.services and the rest. Neither ships a gini/__init__.py — adding one to either would shadow the other and break the import.

License & links

Part of the GINI project — https://github.com/citelab/gini

Download files

Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.

Source Distribution

gini_core-6.8.0.tar.gz (283.6 kB view details)

Uploaded Sep 6, 2026 Source

Built Distribution

If you're not sure about the file name format, learn more about wheel file names.

The dropdown lists show the available interpreters, ABIs, and platforms. Enable javascript to be able to filter the list of wheel files.

gini_core-6.8.0-py3-none-any.whl (325.1 kB view details)

Uploaded Sep 6, 2026 Python 3

File details

Details for the file gini_core-6.8.0.tar.gz.

File metadata

Download URL: gini_core-6.8.0.tar.gz
Upload date: Sep 6, 2026
Size: 283.6 kB
Tags: Source
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? Yes
Uploaded via: twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14

File hashes

Hashes for gini_core-6.8.0.tar.gz
Algorithm	Hash digest
SHA256	`5fef8a3660982026a8d8ac726a9d1c47ffc1cc786a3fa62cf7d7cab8f06f9cd8`
MD5	`1cd49ebf5e384e39e6e3d0ad417e5389`
BLAKE2b-256	`03b9e79be82138f783d5652c3c8ab0fc0099fa9af596d973fffbb1533a8146f6`

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for gini_core-6.8.0.tar.gz:

Publisher: gini-core.yml on citelab/gini

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

Statement:
- Statement type: https://in-toto.io/Statement/v1
- Predicate type: https://docs.pypi.org/attestations/publish/v1
- Subject name: gini_core-6.8.0.tar.gz
- Subject digest: 5fef8a3660982026a8d8ac726a9d1c47ffc1cc786a3fa62cf7d7cab8f06f9cd8
- Sigstore transparency entry: 2744070825
- Sigstore integration time: Sep 6, 2026
Source repository:
- Permalink: citelab/gini@0bf03df4305c4d43d7f303bc8a7eae86de637878
- Branch / Tag: refs/tags/v6.8.0
- Owner: https://github.com/citelab
- Access: public
Publication detail:
- Token Issuer: https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com
- Runner Environment: github-hosted
- Publication workflow: gini-core.yml@0bf03df4305c4d43d7f303bc8a7eae86de637878
- Trigger Event: push