lazyplanet - Global backwards-compatible lazy module importing

Python 3.15 introduces "lazy" imports, where the import is not actually done until it is attempted to be used:

>>> lazy from tarfile import TarFile

In this author's opinion, lazy importing should be the default, and lazyplanet allows for this, in a backwards-compatible way:

>>> from lazyplanet import lazyplanet
>>> lazyplanet()
>>> from tarfile import TarFile
>>> globals()["TarFile"]
<lazy_import 'tarfile.TarFile'>
>>> TarFile
<class 'tarfile.TarFile'>
>>> globals()["TarFile"]
<class 'tarfile.TarFile'>

However, if you would like to import a module immediately, you can import it with gusto, using a context manager in your scope:

>>> from lazyplanet import lazyplanet
>>> gusto = lazyplanet(globals())
>>> from tarfile import TarFile
>>> with gusto:
...     from zipfile import ZipFile
...
>>> globals()["TarFile"]
<lazy_import 'tarfile.TarFile'>
>>> globals()["ZipFile"]
<class 'zipfile.ZipFile'>

Again, lazyplanet is backwards-compatible with versions of Python older than 3.15, where all modules will be imported immediately.

• Original idea: https://m29.us/@ryan/116700617415211850
• PEP 810: https://peps.python.org/pep-0810/

License

Copyright © 2026 Ryan Finnie ryan@finnie.org

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

This document is provided under the following license:

SPDX-PackageName: python-lazyplanet
SPDX-PackageSupplier: Ryan Finnie <ryan@finnie.org>
SPDX-PackageDownloadLocation: https://forge.colobox.com/rfinnie/python-lazyplanet
SPDX-FileCopyrightText: © 2026 Ryan Finnie <ryan@finnie.org>
SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT