Nuru

A declarative admin panel framework for FastAPI. Define your resources once in Python — get a full admin UI with tables, forms, detail views, search, sorting, file uploads, actions, and role-based access control. No HTML, no JS, no separate frontend process.

---

Installation

pip install nuru

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/coolsam726/nuru
cd nuru
pip install -e .

---

Quickstart

from fastapi import FastAPI
from nuru import Panel, Resource, Form, Table
from nuru import forms
from nuru.columns import Text, Badge

app = FastAPI()

# 1. Define a resource
class BookResource(Resource):
    label = "Book"
    label_plural = "Books"
    search_fields = ["title", "isbn"]

    def table(self) -> Table:
        return Table().schema([
            Text("title",  "Title",  sortable=True),
            Text("author", "Author", sortable=True),
            Badge("status", "Status", colors={
                "available": "green", "checked_out": "blue", "lost": "red",
            }),
        ])

    def form(self) -> Form:
        return Form().schema([
            forms.TextInput("title").label("Title").required(),
            forms.TextInput("author").label("Author").required(),
            forms.Select("status").label("Status").options([
                ("available",   "Available"),
                ("checked_out", "Checked Out"),
                ("lost",        "Lost"),
            ]).native(),
        ])

    async def get_list(self, *, page, per_page, search, **kwargs):
        return {"records": await book_service.list(page=page, search=search), "total": ...}

    async def get_record(self, id):
        return await book_service.get(id)

    async def save_record(self, id, data):
        return await book_service.create(data) if id is None else await book_service.update(id, data)

    async def delete_record(self, id):
        await book_service.delete(id)

# 2. Create the panel
class MyPanel(Panel):
    title = "My App"
    prefix = "/admin"
    primary_color = "#6366f1"
    resources = [BookResource]

# 3. Mount
panel = MyPanel()
panel.mount(app)

Open http://localhost:8000/admin — done.

Nuru never touches your existing routes, middleware, OpenAPI docs, or dependency injection setup. All admin routes are excluded from your OpenAPI schema by default.

---

Architecture overview

Panel                      — Subclass to configure your panel (title, prefix, auth, resources, pages)
├── Resource               — One per model/entity; define table(), form(), infolist()
│   ├── Table              — Fluent builder for the list-page column layout
│   ├── Form               — Fluent builder for create/edit forms
│   ├── Infolist           — Fluent builder for read-only detail views
│   └── Action             — Server-side action buttons (row, form, list-header)
└── Page                   — Free-form pages with custom templates and context

All builders use a fluent API — every setter returns self for chaining. Template-facing reads always use explicit get_*() / is_*() getter methods.

---

Panel

Define your panel by subclassing Panel:

from nuru import Panel
from nuru.auth import SimpleAuthBackend

class MyPanel(Panel):
    title = "Kibrary"
    prefix = "/admin"
    primary_color = "#6366f1"
    per_page = 20
    resources = [BookResource, AuthorResource, MemberResource]
    pages = [ReportsPage]
    auth_backend = SimpleAuthBackend(
        username="admin",
        password="secret",
        secret_key="change-me",
    )

panel = MyPanel()
panel.mount(app)

Or configure fluently at runtime:

panel = Panel()
panel.title("Kibrary").prefix("/admin").per_page(20).auth_backend(my_auth)
panel.register(BookResource)
panel.register_page(ReportsPage)
panel.mount(app)

Panel options

Option	Type	Description
title	str	Sidebar header and browser tab title
prefix	str	URL prefix for all admin routes (default: /admin)
primary_color	str	Hex colour for accent elements (buttons, sidebar)
per_page	int	Default pagination page size (default: 25)
auth_backend	AuthBackend	Auth backend instance (omit for no auth)
permission_checker	callable	(user, codename, resource) → bool
upload_backend	FileBackend	Storage backend for file uploads
upload_dir	str | Path	Upload root directory (used by LocalFileBackend)
extra_css	str | list[str]	Additional stylesheet URL(s) loaded after Nuru's CSS
extra_js	str | list[str]	Additional script URL(s)

---

Resource

Subclass Resource and define table(), form(), and optionally infolist():

from nuru import Resource, Form, Table, Infolist

class AuthorResource(Resource):
    label = "Author"
    label_plural = "Authors"
    slug = "authors"               # auto-derived from label if omitted
    nav_icon = "user"
    nav_sort = 10
    model = Author                 # SQLModel class — enables auto-CRUD
    session_factory = get_session  # async context-manager factory
    search_fields = ["name", "bio"]
    load_options = [selectinload(Author.books)]

    def table(self) -> Table: ...
    def form(self)  -> Form:  ...
    def infolist(self) -> Infolist: ...   # optional; falls back to form fields

Resource options

Option	Type	Description
label / label_plural	str	Display names
slug	str	URL segment (auto-derived from label if blank)
nav_icon / nav_sort / show_in_nav		Sidebar navigation
model	SQLModel	Enables automatic CRUD and column/field generation
session_factory	callable	Zero-arg async context-manager yielding AsyncSession
search_fields	list[str]	Column names for ILIKE search
load_options	list	SQLAlchemy loader options (selectinload, etc.)
can_create / can_edit / can_delete / can_view	bool	Toggle CRUD operations
options_label_field	str	Attribute used as label in BelongsTo selectors

Data hooks

Override these to connect your own service/ORM layer:

Method	When called	Must return
get_list(page, per_page, search, sort_by, sort_dir, filters)	List page	{"records": [...], "total": int}
get_record(id)	Edit/view page load	single record
save_record(id, data)	Form submit (id=None = create)	saved record
delete_record(id)	Delete action	None
after_save(record_id, data)	After save_record	None (M2M, side-effects)
get_options(q)	BelongsTo selector search	[{"value": ..., "label": ...}]

When model and session_factory are set all hooks have a default implementation — override only what you need.

SQLModel auto-CRUD

class MemberResource(Resource):
    label = "Member"
    model = Member
    session_factory = get_session
    search_fields = ["name", "email", "member_number"]
    load_options = [selectinload(Member.checkouts)]

Columns and form fields are auto-generated from model annotations when neither table() nor form() is defined.

---

Table (list view)

from nuru import Table
from nuru.columns import Text, Badge, Boolean, Currency, DateTime, Image

def table(self) -> Table:
    return (
        Table()
        .schema([
            Image("avatar",     "Photo"),
            Text("name",        "Name",   sortable=True),
            Text("email",       "Email"),
            Badge("status",     "Status", colors={"active": "green", "suspended": "red"}),
            Boolean("active",   "Active"),
            Currency("balance", "Balance", currency="KES"),
            DateTime("joined",  "Joined",  date_only=True),
        ])
        .row_actions([
            Action.make("suspend").label("Suspend").style("danger")
                .handler("do_suspend").confirm("Suspend this member?"),
        ])
    )

Column types

Class	Description	Extra fluent options
Text	Plain text	.max_length(n)
Badge	Colored pill	.colors({"value": "color_name"})
Boolean	Yes/No badge	.labels("Yes", "No")
Currency	Formatted number	.currency("KES"), .decimals(2)
DateTime	Date or datetime	.format("%d %b %Y"), .date_only()
Image	Thumbnail	.url_prefix("/uploads"), .img_class("…")

All columns accept dot-notation keys for traversing relationships: Text("author.name", "Author").

Column fluent API

Text.make("isbn").label("ISBN").sortable()
Badge.make("status").colors({"draft": "amber", "published": "green"})
Image.make("cover").url_prefix("/admin/uploads").img_class("w-12 h-16 rounded")

Every column exposes explicit getters: get_label(), get_key(), is_sortable(), get_img_class(), etc.

---

Form (create / edit view)

from nuru import Form
from nuru import forms

def form(self) -> Form:
    return (
        Form()
        .schema([
            forms.Section(
                [
                    forms.TextInput("name").label("Full name").required(),
                    forms.TextInput("email").email().label("Email").required(),
                    forms.Select("membership").label("Type").options([
                        ("standard", "Standard"),
                        ("student",  "Student"),
                        ("senior",   "Senior"),
                        ("staff",    "Staff"),
                    ]).native(),
                    forms.Checkbox("active").label("Active"),
                ],
                title="Details", cols=2,
            ),
            forms.Section(
                [
                    forms.FileUpload("avatar").label("Photo").image()
                        .directory("members")
                        .accept_file_types(["image/jpeg", "image/png"])
                        .max_file_size(5 * 1024 * 1024)
                        .image_crop_aspect_ratio("1:1")
                        .col_span("full"),
                ],
                title="Photo",
            ),
        ])
        .actions([
            Action.make("export").label("Export PDF")
                .handler("export_pdf").placement("header"),
        ])
    )

Field types

Class	Description
TextInput	Single-line text (base for Email, Password)
Email	Text + type="email" + email validator
Password	Text + type="password"
Number	Numeric input
Textarea	Multi-line text
Select	Static list, tuple pairs, callable, or model-backed combobox
Checkbox	Single boolean checkbox
CheckboxGroup	Multi-select checkbox group
Radio	Radio button group
RadioButtons	Pill-style radio buttons
Toggle	Styled on/off toggle
DatePicker	Date picker widget
TimePicker	Time picker widget
DateTimePicker	Combined date + time picker
FileUpload	FilePond-powered file/image upload
Hidden	Hidden input
Section	Groups fields under a titled card (cols, col_span)

Common field fluent API

forms.TextInput("username")
    .label("Username")
    .placeholder("johndoe")
    .help_text("Used for login.")
    .required()
    .max_length(64)
    .col_span("full")   # "full", 1, 2, 3, 4
    .disabled()
    .readonly()

Field.make("key") factory is available on every field class.

Select options — all formats accepted

Select, Radio, RadioButtons, and CheckboxGroup all normalise options to {"value": …, "label": …} dicts automatically:

# Tuple pairs  (recommended for readability)
.options([("draft", "Draft"), ("published", "Published")])

# Plain dicts
.options([{"value": "draft", "label": "Draft"}, ...])

# Bare strings  (value == label)
.options(["draft", "published", "archived"])

# Callable — resolved at render time, may return any format above
.options(lambda record=None: [("a", "Alpha"), ("b", "Beta")])

Model-backed combobox

For foreign-key fields, use a model-backed Select that queries the built-in /_model_search endpoint as the user types:

forms.Select.make("author_id").label("Author")
    .model(Author, label_field="name")
    .relationship("author")   # attr on the record for pre-populating the label
    .required()
    .remote_search()

Server-side validation

All form submissions are validated before save_record() is called. Errors appear inline next to each field (HTTP 422, no separate error page).

Validator	How to enable	What it checks
required	.required()	Non-empty value present
max_length	.max_length(n)	String length ≤ n
email	.email()	RFC-style user@host.tld pattern
url	.url()	Has scheme + netloc
numeric	.add_validator("numeric")	Float-coercible
integer	.add_validator("integer")	Integer-coercible (no decimals)

The same validation fires for Action modal fields before the handler is called.

---

Infolist (detail / view)

Infolist renders a read-only detail page. Without an infolist() override, it falls back to the form fields.

from nuru import Infolist
from nuru.infolists.components import (
    TextEntry, ImageEntry, BooleanEntry, BadgeEntry, DateEntry, FileEntry,
)

def infolist(self) -> Infolist:
    return Infolist().schema([
        forms.Section(
            [
                ImageEntry.make("avatar").label("Photo")
                    .img_class("size-24 rounded-full object-cover")
                    .url_prefix("/admin/uploads"),
                TextEntry.make("name").label("Full name"),
                TextEntry.make("email").label("Email"),
                DateEntry.make("joined_on").label("Joined on"),
                BadgeEntry.make("status").label("Status").colors({
                    "active": "green", "suspended": "red",
                }),
                BooleanEntry.make("active").label("Active"),
            ],
            title="Details", cols=2,
        ),
    ])

Infolist entry types

Class	Description
TextEntry	Plain text value
ImageEntry	Image thumbnail with optional URL prefix
BooleanEntry	Yes/No badge
BadgeEntry	Colored pill
DateEntry	Formatted date
FileEntry	Download link

---

Actions

Actions are server-side button handlers that appear in three locations:

• row_actions — per-row buttons in the table
• list_actions — buttons in the list-page header
• form_actions — buttons in the form header or inline

from nuru import Action
from nuru import forms

def form(self) -> Form:
    return (
        Form()
        .actions([
            Action.make("mark_returned")
                .label("Mark Returned")
                .style("success")
                .handler("mark_returned")
                .placement("header")
                .confirm("Mark this book as returned?")
                .icon("M5 13l4 4L19 7"),

            Action.make("add_note")
                .label("Add Note")
                .handler("add_note")
                .placement("inline")
                .fields([
                    forms.Textarea("note").label("Note").required(),
                ]),
        ])
        .schema([...])
    )

async def mark_returned(self, record_id, data, request):
    async with get_session() as session:
        record = await session.get(MyModel, int(record_id))
        record.status = "returned"
        await session.commit()

async def add_note(self, record_id, data, request):
    note = data.get("note", "")
    ...

Action fluent API

Method	Description
.label("…")	Button label
.icon("svg_path")	SVG path data for a 24×24 icon
.style("danger")	default, primary, secondary, success, warning, danger
.confirm("…")	Show a confirmation prompt before executing
.handler("method_name")	Name of the method to call on the Resource
.placement("header")	"row", "header", or "inline"
.fields([…])	Form fields shown in a modal before executing
.modal_title("…")	Modal window title
.submit_label("…")	Modal submit button label

Handler signature: async def my_handler(self, record_id, data, request). Return None for the default redirect, or a URL string to redirect elsewhere.

---

Pages

Free-form admin pages beyond the standard CRUD views:

from fastapi import Request
from fastapi.responses import Response, RedirectResponse
from nuru import Page

class ReportsPage(Page):
    label = "Reports"
    slug = "reports"
    nav_icon = "chart-bar"
    nav_sort = 100

    async def get_context(self, request: Request) -> dict:
        return {
            "total_books": await book_service.count(),
            "recent": await book_service.recent(10),
        }

    async def handle_post(self, request: Request) -> Response:
        form = await request.form()
        ...
        return RedirectResponse(f"{self.panel.prefix}/{self.slug}?success=1", status_code=303)

Place your template at templates/pages/reports.html relative to your app's template directory. The template extends layout.html.

Standalone table widget

Render a table inside any custom page template without a Resource:

{% set _columns = [
    columns.Text("name",   "Name"),
    columns.Badge("status","Status", colors={"ok": "green", "err": "red"}),
] %}
{% set _rows = recent_records %}
{% include "partials/table_widget.html" %}

---

Authentication

SimpleAuthBackend — single user

from nuru.auth import SimpleAuthBackend

class MyPanel(Panel):
    auth_backend = SimpleAuthBackend(
        username="admin",
        password="secret",
        secret_key="change-me-in-production",
    )

DatabaseAuthBackend — multi-user

from nuru.auth import DatabaseAuthBackend
from passlib.context import CryptContext

_pwd = CryptContext(schemes=["bcrypt"])

class MyPanel(Panel):
    auth_backend = DatabaseAuthBackend(
        user_model=StaffUser,
        session_factory=get_session,
        username_field="email",
        password_field="password",
        verify_password=_pwd.verify,
        secret_key="change-me-in-production",
        extra_fields=["name", "role"],
    )

Both backends sign a session cookie with itsdangerous.

---

Roles & Permissions

Concepts

Concept	Description
Permission	Fixed codename scoped to a resource + action — e.g. books:list, books:delete
Role	Named group of permissions (many-to-many)
UserRole	Which roles a user holds (identified by str(pk))

Codename format

{resource_slug}:{action} — for example:

Codename	Meaning
books:list	Browse the Books list page
books:create	Create a new Book
books:edit	Edit an existing Book
books:view	View Book detail
books:delete	Delete a Book
books:action	Run any action on Books
books:action:export_csv	Run only the export_csv action
books:*	All operations on Books
*	Superuser — everything

Setup

import nuru.roles   # registers the 4 nuru_* tables with SQLModel.metadata
from nuru.roles import db_permission_checker

class MyPanel(Panel):
    auth_backend = DatabaseAuthBackend(...)
    permission_checker = db_permission_checker

Sync the schema and upsert permission rows at startup:

from nuru.migrations import sync_schema

@app.on_event("startup")
async def on_startup():
    await sync_schema(engine, SQLModel.metadata)   # creates nuru_* tables
    await panel.sync_permissions(get_session)      # upserts permission codenames

Seeding roles programmatically

from sqlmodel import select
from nuru.roles import Permission, Role, RolePermission, UserRole

async def seed_roles(session):
    admin  = Role(name="Super Admin")
    viewer = Role(name="Read Only")
    session.add_all([admin, viewer])
    await session.flush()

    star = (await session.exec(select(Permission).where(Permission.codename == "*"))).first()
    session.add(RolePermission(role_id=admin.id, permission_id=star.id))

    view_perms = (await session.exec(
        select(Permission).where(Permission.codename.in_(["books:list", "books:view"]))
    )).all()
    for p in view_perms:
        session.add(RolePermission(role_id=viewer.id, permission_id=p.id))

    session.add(UserRole(user_id=str(user.id), role_id=admin.id))
    await session.commit()

Custom permission checker

async def my_checker(user, codename, resource):
    if user is None:
        return False
    if user.get("is_superuser"):
        return True
    return codename in user.get("_permissions", set())

class MyPanel(Panel):
    permission_checker = my_checker

---

File Upload

Nuru's FileUpload field is powered by FilePond (loaded from CDN — no build step needed).

from nuru.forms import FileUpload

# Single image upload with crop
FileUpload("avatar")
    .label("Profile Photo")
    .image()
    .directory("avatars")
    .accept_file_types(["image/jpeg", "image/png", "image/webp"])
    .max_file_size(2 * 1024 * 1024)
    .image_crop_aspect_ratio("1:1")
    .required()

# Multiple PDF attachments
FileUpload("documents")
    .label("Attachments")
    .multiple()
    .max_files(5)
    .accept_file_types(["application/pdf"])
    .max_file_size(10 * 1024 * 1024)

Storage backend

from pathlib import Path
from nuru.storage import LocalFileBackend

class MyPanel(Panel):
    upload_backend = LocalFileBackend(Path("/var/www/myapp/media"))

Uploaded files are served at {prefix}/uploads/<server_id> automatically.

FileUpload options

Method	Description
.image()	Enable image preview + EXIF orientation fix
.multiple()	Allow multiple file selection
.max_files(n)	Max number of files (requires .multiple())
.accept_file_types([…])	List of MIME types to accept
.max_file_size(bytes)	Maximum file size in bytes
.directory("path")	Sub-directory under upload root
.image_crop_aspect_ratio("1:1")	Lock crop to a ratio
.image_resize(w, h, mode)	Resize client-side before upload
.can_reorder(True)	Allow drag-to-reorder
.can_download(True)	Show download button (default: True)

---

Custom Tailwind classes

Nuru ships a pre-built tailwind.css that only scans Nuru's own templates. If your Resources or Pages use Tailwind classes not present in Nuru's templates, add a supplemental stylesheet:

/* my_app/static/admin-extra.input.css */
@import "tailwindcss";
@source "../**/*.py";
@source "../templates/**/*.html";
@variant dark (&:where(.dark, .dark *));

./node_modules/.bin/tailwindcss \
  -i my_app/static/admin-extra.input.css \
  -o my_app/static/admin-extra.css --minify

class MyPanel(Panel):
    extra_css = "/static/admin-extra.css"
    # extra_css = ["/static/a.css", "/static/b.css"]  # or a list

---

Running the example app

git clone https://github.com/coolsam726/nuru
cd nuru
pip install -e .

# Build the Tailwind CSS (requires Node ≥ 18)
npm install
npm run build:css

uvicorn example_app.main:app --reload
# open http://localhost:8000/admin

Developing? Run npm run watch:css in a second terminal to rebuild the stylesheet automatically as you edit templates.

CSS build commands

Command	Effect
npm install	Install tailwindcss + @tailwindcss/cli
npm run build:css	One-off minified build → nuru/static/tailwind.css
npm run watch:css	Rebuild on every template save

---

What's included

• ✅ Fluent builder API — Panel, Resource, Table, Form, Infolist, Action all chain cleanly; no set_ prefixes; getters exposed as get_*() / is_*()
• ✅ Typed columns — Text, Badge, Currency, DateTime, Boolean, Image; dot-notation for relationship traversal ("author.name")
• ✅ Typed form fields — TextInput (+ Email, Password), Number, Textarea, Select, Checkbox, CheckboxGroup, Radio, RadioButtons, Toggle, DatePicker, TimePicker, DateTimePicker, FileUpload, Hidden, Section
• ✅ Typed infolist entries — TextEntry, ImageEntry, BooleanEntry, BadgeEntry, DateEntry, FileEntry
• ✅ Select options normalisation — tuple pairs ("val","Label"), plain dicts, bare strings, and callables all accepted by Select, Radio, RadioButtons, and CheckboxGroup
• ✅ SQLModel auto-CRUD — set model + session_factory for zero-boilerplate list/get/create/update/delete; columns and fields auto-generated from model annotations
• ✅ Actions — row, list-header, form-header, and inline actions with confirm modals and optional form fields; action-specific validation before handler call
• ✅ Server-side validation — required, max_length, email, url, numeric, integer; field-level errors in the form UI (HTTP 422)
• ✅ File upload (FilePond) — drag-and-drop, image preview, content-type and size validation, single/multiple modes, pluggable storage backends
• ✅ Auth — signed-cookie session, SimpleAuthBackend, DatabaseAuthBackend, custom AuthBackend
• ✅ Roles & Permissions — Permission, Role, RolePermission, UserRole tables; db_permission_checker; role management UI in the panel
• ✅ Pages — free-form pages with custom templates, get_context() / handle_post(), standalone table_widget.html partial
• ✅ HTMX — live search, sort, pagination without full-page reloads
• ✅ Alpine.js 3.x — sidebar, theme toggle, dialog, combobox — no custom JS required
• ✅ Dark mode — built-in, localStorage-persisted
• ✅ Responsive — mobile sidebar, Tailwind CSS v4

What's coming

• Dashboard widgets — stat cards, line/pie charts (Chart.js adapter)
• Repeater field — repeatable sub-forms backed by JSON
• Reactive field rules — visible_when, depends_on, compute (Alpine bindings + server mirror)
• Bulk actions — checkbox selection + bulk operation handlers