kycli 0.1.8

**kycli** is a high-performance Python CLI toolkit built with Cython for speed.

kycli — The Microsecond-Fast Key-Value Toolkit

kycli is a high-performance, developer-first key-value storage engine. It bridges the gap between the simplicity of a flat-file database and the blazing speed of in-memory caches like Redis, all while remaining completely serverless and lightweight.

Built with Cython and linked directly to the Raw SQLite C API (libsqlite3), kycli is optimized for local development, CLI productivity, and high-throughput Python backends.

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⚡ Performance: Real-World Stats

kycli is designed to be the fastest local storage option available for Python. By bypassing standard abstraction layers and moving critical logic to C, we achieve microsecond-level latency.

Benchmark Results (Average of 1,000 calls)

Operation	Implementation	Avg Latency	vs. Standard Python
L1 Cache Hit	Cython LRU	1.5 µs	Near-In-Memory
Key Retrieval (Get)	Direct C API	2.8 µs	150x Faster
Batch Save	Atomic C-Loop	15 µs / item	Extreme Throughput
History Lookup	Indexed C API	5.0 µs	Instant Auditing

Why so fast? Standard Python storage tools use network sockets (Redis) or heavy wrappers (SQLAlchemy). kycli uses direct memory pointers to an embedded C engine, removing 99% of the overhead.

Scaling: In a benchmark of 10,000 class records with Pydantic validation, kycli maintains a sub-2ms write latency and microsecond-fast reads. See PERFORMANCE.md for full details.

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🚀 Installation

Install the latest version from PyPI:

pip install kycli

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💻 CLI Command Reference

kycli provides a set of ultra-short commands for maximum terminal productivity.

Command	Action	Example
kys	Save / Patch	kys user.age 25
kyg	Get & Search	kyg user or kyg -s "query"
kypush	Push to list	kypush logs "error"
kyrem	Remove from list	kyrem tags "old"
kyl	List keys (Regex)	kyl "prod_.*"
kyv	View history/audit	kyv username
kyd	Delete (Soft)	kyd old_token
kyr	Restore (Path support)	kyr user.profile
kye	Export (CSV/JSON)	kye data.json json
kyi	Import (CSV/JSON)	kyi backup.csv
kyc	Execute command	kyc hello
kyrt	Restore-to (PITR)	kyrt "2026-01-01"
kyco	Compact (Maintenance)	kyco 7
kyshell	Interactive TUI	kycli kyshell
kyh	Help library	kyh

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kyh — The Help Center

Shows the available commands and basic usage instructions.

kyh
# Or use the -h flag on specific commands

kys <key> <value> [--ttl <sec>] — Save Data

Saves a value to a key.

• Auto-Normalization: Keys are lowercased and trimmed.
• Safety: Asks (y/n) before overwriting an existing key.
• TTL (Time To Live): Set an expiration time in seconds.

kys username "balakrishna"
# Result: ✅ Saved: username (New)

kys username "maduru"
# Result: ⚠️ Key 'username' already exists. Overwrite? (y/n):

kys session_id "data" --ttl 1h
# Result: ✅ Saved: session_id (New) (Expires in 1 hour)

📂 Advanced JSONPath & Dot-Notation

kycli allows you to treat your key-value store like a document database. You can query and update deep nested structures without retrieving the entire object.

Nested Retrieval:

# Get a specific field
kyg user.profile.email

# Access list items by index
kyg logs[0]

# List slicing (e.g., first 5 logs)
kyg logs[0:5]

Atomic Patching (Partial Updates):

Instead of rewriting a large JSON object, you can update just one field.

# Update just the 'age' field inside the 'user' object
kys user.profile.age 25

📦 Collection Operations (Lists & Sets)

Manage lists stored in keys efficiently without manual read-modify-write loops.

# Append to a list
kypush my_list "new_item"

# Append only if the item doesn't exist (Set behavior)
kypush my_tags "python" --unique

# Remove from a list
kyrem my_list "old_item"

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🔐 Enterprise-Grade Security: Encryption at Rest

kycli supports transparent AES-256-GCM encryption. When a master key is provided, all data is encrypted before being written to disk and decrypted on retrieval.

Via CLI:

# Save with encryption
kys secret_token "ghp_secure" --key "my-master-password"

# Retrieve with encryption
kyg secret_token --key "my-master-password"

Via Environment Variable:

export KYCLI_MASTER_KEY="my-master-password"
kyg secret_token

[!IMPORTANT] If you attempt to retrieve an encrypted key without the correct master_key, kycli will return a masked message: [ENCRYPTED: Provide a master key to view this value] instead of raw ciphertext.

⏳ Value-Level TTL (Time To Live)

Like Redis, you can set keys to expire automatically. kycli implements Soft Expiration: when a key hits its TTL, it is moved to the Archive table (not deleted) and can be recovered within 15 days using the kyr command.

# Expire in 60 seconds
kys temp_code "1234" --ttl 60

# Expire in 1 day
kys daily_report "data" --ttl 1d

# Expire in 1 month (30 days)
kys monthly_archive "data" --ttl 1M

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kyg [-s] <key_or_query> — Get & Search

• Get Key: kyg <key> retrieves a value.
• Search: kyg -s <query> performs a Google-like search across all values using FTS5.

# Get exact key
kyg username
# Result: maduru

# Search for "admin" anywhere in the database
kyg -s "admin"
# Result:
# {
#   "user_profile": { "name": "balu", "role": "admin" }
# }

kyl [pattern] — List Keys

Lists all keys or those matching a pattern.

kyl
# Result: 🔑 Keys: username, user_id, env

kyl "user.*"
# Result: 🔑 Keys: username, user_id

kyv [key | -h] — View History (Audit Log)

kycli never deletes your old values; it archives them.

• kyv -h: Shows the full history of ALL keys in a formatted table.
• kyv <key>: Shows the latest value from the history for that specific key.

kyv -h
# Result: 📜 Full Audit History (All Keys)
# Timestamp            | Key             | Value
# -----------------------------------------------------
# 2026-01-03 13:20:01  | username        | maduru
# 2026-01-03 13:10:00  | username        | balakrishna

kyd <key> — Delete Key (Soft Delete)

Removes a key from the active store.

• Double-Confirmation: Requires you to re-type the key name to prevent accidental loss.
• Tip: Deletion is "soft" in terms of data—it stays in history and can be recovered.

kyd username
# Result: ⚠️ DANGER: To delete 'username', please re-enter the key name: username
# Result: Deleted
# Result: 💡 Tip: If this was accidental, use 'kyr username' to restore it.

kyr <key> — Restore Key

Restores a key from its history back into the active store.

• Note: This works for keys in the Archive table. KyCLI keeps deleted data for 15 days before permanent removal.

kyr username
# Result: ✅ Key 'username' restored from history.

kyrt <timestamp> — Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR)

Reconstruct the entire database state at a specific moment in time. This is a "Time Machine" for your data.

• Mechanism: Clears the current store and repopulates it with the state as of the given timestamp using the audit log.

# Restore to New Year's Day
kyrt "2026-01-01 12:00:00"
# Result: 🕒 Database restored to 2026-01-01 12:00:00

kyco [retention_days] — Database Compaction & Maintenance

Cleanup old history and optimize the database file.

• Retention: History older than retention_days (default 15) is purged.
• Optimization: Runs SQLite VACUUM and ANALYZE to reclaim space and optimize query paths.

# Cleanup everything older than 7 days
kyco 7
# Result: 🧹 Compaction complete: Space reclaimed and stale history purged.

kye <file> [format] — Export Data

Exports your entire store to a file.

• Format: csv (default) or json.

kye backup.csv
kye data.json json

kyi <file> — Import Data

Bulk imports data from a CSV or JSON file.

kyi backup.csv

kyc <key> [args...] — Execute Mode

Run a stored value directly as a shell command.

• Static Execution: Run the command exactly as stored.
• Dynamic Execution: Pass additional arguments that get appended to the stored command.

# Store a command
kys list_files "ls -la"

# Execute it
kyc list_files

# Dynamic execution (appends /tmp)
kyc list_files /tmp

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kyshell — Interactive TUI Shell

Launch a multi-pane interactive shell to manage your data.

• Auto-completion: Tab-completion for all commands.
• Split View: Real-time audit trail in a separate pane as you execute commands.
• Syntax Highlighting: Beautifully formatted input and output.

kycli kyshell

⚙️ Global Configuration & Env Vars

kycli is highly configurable. You can change the database location, export formats, and UI themes via environment variables or configuration files.

🌍 Environment Variables (Highest Priority)

The most direct way to configure kycli is via shell environment variables.

• KYCLI_DB_PATH: Overrides the default database location (~/kydata.db).
• KYCLI_MASTER_KEY: Sets the default master key for AES-256 encryption.

  export KYCLI_DB_PATH="/custom/path/to/database.db"
  export KYCLI_MASTER_KEY="your-secret-password"
  

📁 Configuration Files

kycli looks for configuration in .kyclirc or .kyclirc.json.

Example .kyclirc (JSON):

{
  "db_path": "~/.kydata.db",
  "export_format": "csv"
}

🐍 Python Library Interface

1. Dictionary-like Interface (Sync)

The easiest way to integrate into any Python script or class.

from kycli import Kycore

# Use as a context manager for automatic cleanup
with Kycore() as kv:
    # Set and Get (Dict-style)
    kv['theme'] = 'dark'
    print(kv['theme'])  # dark

    # Check existence
    if 'theme' in kv:
        print("Settings loaded.")

    # Bulk count
    print(f"Items stored: {len(kv)}")

# 4. Encryption & TTL (Sync)
with Kycore(master_key="secret-pass") as kv:
    # Save with 10-minute expiration
    kv.save("temp_password", "123456", ttl="10m")
    
    # Save with 1-month expiration
    kv.save("persistent_secret", "data", ttl="1M")
    
    print(kv.getkey("temp_password")) # 123456

# 5. Batch Operations (save_many)
with Kycore() as kv:
    items = [("k1", "v1"), ("k2", "v2"), ("k3", "v3")]
    kv.save_many(items, ttl="1h")
    # Result: ⚡ Atomic transaction per batch (extremely fast)

# 6. Maintenance & PITR
with Kycore() as kv:
    # Cleanup history older than 30 days
    kv.compact(retention_days=30)
    
    # Point-in-Time Recovery
    kv.restore_to("2026-01-01 00:00:00")

2. High-Throughput (Async)

Designed for asyncio applications like FastAPI.

import asyncio
from kycli import Kycore

async def run_tasks():
    # Use encryption and TTL in async environments
    with Kycore(master_key="async-vault") as kv:
        await kv.save_async("session:active", "true", ttl=3600)
        current = await kv.getkey_async("session:active")
        print(f"Session active: {current}")

asyncio.run(run_tasks())

3. Schema Validation (Pydantic)

Enforce data integrity by attaching a Pydantic model to your store.

from pydantic import BaseModel
from kycli import Kycore

class UserSchema(BaseModel):
    name: str
    age: int

# Initialize with schema validation
with Kycore(schema=UserSchema) as kv:
    # This will succeed and auto-serialize
    kv.save("user:101", {"name": "Balu", "age": 30})
    
    # This will raise a ValueError (Schema Validation Error)
    kv.save("user:102", {"name": "Invalid"}) 

4. Application / Class Integration

Wrap Kycore inside your classes for persistent state management.

class UserManager:
    def __init__(self):
        self.db = Kycore()

    def update_profile(self, user_id, data):
        self.db.save(f"user:{user_id}", data)

    def close(self):
        self.db.__exit__(None, None, None)

4. FastAPI Web Server Integration

from fastapi import FastAPI, Depends
from kycli import Kycore

app = FastAPI()

def get_db():
    with Kycore() as db:
        yield db

@app.get("/config/{key}")
async def fetch_config(key: str, db: Kycore = Depends(get_db)):
    return {"val": await db.getkey_async(key)}

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🏗 Architecture & Internal Safety

• SQLite Engine: Running in WAL (Write-Ahead Logging) mode for concurrent reads/writes.
• Atomic Operations: Exports use a "temp-file then rename" strategy to prevent corruption.
• Data Integrity: Keys are automatically lowercased and stripped to prevent duplicate-but-slightly-different keys.
• Auto-Purge Policy: Deleted keys are moved to an Archive table and automatically purged after 15 days to keep the database size optimized.
• Embedded C: Core operations are written in Cython, binding directly to native library pointers.

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📊 Benchmarking

Want to test the speed on your own hardware?

PYTHONPATH=. python3 tests/integration/benchmark.py

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👤 Author & Support

Balakrishna Maduru

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