gixenpy 0.2.0

Unofficial Python client for Gixen.com (eBay sniping) — automates its website since there's no public API.

gixenpy

Unofficial Python client for Gixen.com (eBay sniping)
See usage examples »

Report a bug · Request a feature

Table of Contents

1. About The Project
   • Built With
2. Getting Started
   • Prerequisites
   • Installation
3. Usage
   • As a library
   • As a CLI
4. Security
5. Tests
6. Publishing to PyPI
7. Roadmap
8. Contributing
9. License
10. Contact
11. Acknowledgments

About The Project

Gixen used to offer a public API for scheduling snipes (last-second eBay bids); that API is now restricted to regular users. gixenpy solves that by automating Gixen's web form with requests, just like a browser with JavaScript disabled would — without depending on an API that's no longer available.

Not a Gixen product, not affiliated with Gixen.com. Checked against their terms of use and FAQ: they don't prohibit automated access, but use it at your own risk — Gixen may block traffic it doesn't recognize at its discretion.

What you can do with it:

• Schedule (add_snipe), list (list_snipes), edit (update_snipe), delete (delete_snipe) and purge ended snipes (purge_completed).
• Bid, offset (seconds before the close) and bid group, all configurable; in update_snipe each one is independent and optional (whatever isn't passed is kept as-is).
• Tell active snipes apart from ended ones (Snipe.status).
• Dynamically locate Gixen's forms by parsing the HTML, instead of assuming fixed field names: if Gixen changes their site, it keeps working as long as the form structure doesn't change too much.
• Dry-run mode (the default for add_snipe unless told otherwise): sends nothing, just reports what it would send.
• A full CLI: gixenpy list/add/edit/remove/purge/group.

(back to top)

Built With

• 
• 
• 

(back to top)

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10 or newer
• A Gixen account (credentials are Gixen's, not eBay's)

Installation

pip install git+https://github.com/figurophobia/gixenpy.git

For development (with tests):

git clone https://github.com/figurophobia/gixenpy.git
cd gixenpy
pip install -e ".[dev]"

(back to top)

Usage

As a library

from gixenpy import GixenClient

client = GixenClient(username="your_gixen_username", password="your_password", dry_run=True)

# Schedule a snipe (dry_run=True by default: doesn't bid for real).
result = client.add_snipe(item_id="123456789012", max_bid=42.50)
print(result.message)

# When you want to bid for real:
result = client.add_snipe(item_id="123456789012", max_bid=42.50, dry_run=False)

# Manage existing snipes.
for snipe in client.list_snipes():
    print(snipe.item_id, snipe.max_bid, snipe.status)  # "active" | "ended" | "unknown"

client.update_snipe(item_id="123456789012", new_max=55)
client.delete_snipe(item_id="123456789012")

# Offset (seconds before the close) and bid group, optional:
client.add_snipe(item_id="123456789012", max_bid=42.50, offset=9, group=1, dry_run=False)
client.update_snipe(item_id="123456789012", offset=12)   # change only the offset
client.update_snipe(item_id="123456789012", group=2)     # change only the group

client.purge_completed()  # remove already-ended snipes from the history

Credentials are your Gixen account's (not eBay's). Never logged or printed.

As a CLI

export GIXEN_USERNAME=your_username
export GIXEN_PASSWORD=your_password
# or create a .env with those two lines (see .env.example)

gixenpy --help                 # list of commands
gixenpy --version

gixenpy list                   # active and ended snipes

gixenpy add 123456789012 42.50                       # schedules a snipe FOR REAL
gixenpy add 123456789012 42.50 --offset 9 --group 1  # with offset/group
gixenpy add 123456789012 42.50 --dry-run             # just shows what would be sent

gixenpy edit 123456789012 55          # change the max bid
gixenpy edit 123456789012 --offset 12 # change only the offset (keeps the bid)
gixenpy edit 123456789012 --group 2   # change only the group

gixenpy remove 123456789012    # delete the snipe
gixenpy purge                  # purge ended snipes from the history

gixenpy group 3 123456789012 987654321098  # assign group 3 to several items

Every command exits with code 0 if Gixen confirmed the operation, or 1 if it failed/errored (message on stderr, prefixed with ERROR:).

(back to top)

Security

• A small, fixed number of requests per action (1 GET + 1 POST), no aggressive polling.
• Reuses the existing session instead of relogging on every action (avoiding unnecessarily kicking out other sessions — Gixen only allows one active session per account).
• The max bid amount is always decided by whoever calls the library; it never picks a value on its own.
• Any form URL extracted from Gixen's HTML is validated against gixen.com (and HTTPS only) before sending anything; a tampered response can't make the client send the payload to a different host.
• Configurable connect/read timeouts (GixenClient(timeout=...), default (5, 25) seconds) to fail fast on network issues.
• A single retry with backoff (GixenClient(retry_backoff=...), 2 seconds by default) if Gixen accepts a write but doesn't end up applying it — never on an explicit rejection.

(back to top)

Tests

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest -q

Neither suite makes any network requests: tests/test_client.py replaces Gixen's logged-in page with test HTML and verifies form parsing and the payload built; tests/test_cli.py exercises the CLI with click.testing.CliRunner, injecting a fake client.

(back to top)

Publishing to PyPI

The package is ready to publish (the gixenpy name is free on PyPI, py.typed, classifiers, python -m build + twine check pass, the wheel was verified by installing it into a clean venv). Steps left (manual, require your own PyPI account):

pip install -e ".[dev]" build twine
python -m build                 # generates dist/*.tar.gz and dist/*.whl
twine check dist/*              # validates the package
twine upload -r testpypi dist/* # optional: try it on TestPyPI first
twine upload dist/*             # real publication

(back to top)

Roadmap

• Publish gixenpy on PyPI
• Persistent session across processes (today every new GixenClient logs in if needed; there's no on-disk session cache)
• Revisit the active/ended status heuristic if Gixen changes the text/order of "Status (main): ..." in their HTML

See the open issues for the full list of proposed features (and known issues).

(back to top)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. If you have an idea that would make this better, fork the repo and open a pull request, or simply open an issue with the "enhancement" tag.

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add my-feature')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/my-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

(back to top)

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

(back to top)

Contact

Project issues: github.com/figurophobia/gixenpy/issues

(back to top)

Acknowledgments

• hsukenooi/gixen-cli — another independent implementation of the same problem, used as a reference for several improvements to this library
• Best-README-Template — the template used for this README
• Gixen.com for the sniping service itself

(back to top)