pixeltable

Pixeltable Cloud is in Limited Beta. Email contact@pixeltable.com if you are interested.

The unified multimodal backend for AI data apps in one Python file

Pixeltable is the database, orchestration, and serving layers. Images, video, audio, and documents live in tables. A transform is a computed column. An index is a declaration, and so is an HTTP route. Insert a row and everything below it runs. Object storage, a vector database, an orchestrator, and the endpoint code that copies between them collapse into one application file.

pip install 'pixeltable[serve]'
pxt init
pxt service example --out app.py
pxt schema update app.py my_app
pxt service update app.py my_app

pxt schema update creates the catalog my_app and its tables; it does not start HTTP. pxt service update starts HTTP; it does not create tables.

pxt service example writes this application file.

import pixeltable as pxt
import pixeltable.functions as pxtf
from pixeltable.serving import FastAPIRouter

TableModel = pxt.model_base()


@pxt.udf                                        # a Python function the columns below can call
def excerpt(text: str, n: int = 12) -> str:
    return text if len(text) <= n else f'{text[:n]}...'


class Docs(TableModel, name='docs'):
    doc_id: pxt.Int                             # an annotation: a value you insert
    title: pxt.String
    body: pxt.String | None
    title_upper = pxtf.string.upper(title)      # an assignment: computed on insert and on update
    summary = excerpt(title)                    # a computed column over a udf this file defines


ingest = FastAPIRouter(name='ingest')
ingest.add_insert_route(                        # POST /docs inserts and returns the computed columns
    Docs, path='/docs', inputs=[Docs.doc_id, Docs.title, Docs.body], outputs=[Docs.title_upper, Docs.summary]
)
ingest.add_compute_route(Docs, path='/titles', inputs=[Docs.title], outputs=[Docs.title_upper])

The same file holds pxt.Image, pxt.Video, pxt.Audio, or pxt.Document columns, and a computed column over one of them is another assignment: media pipelines, RAG. The port is assigned, so read it back rather than hardcoding it:

URL=$(pxt service list --json | jq -r '.[0].endpoint')
curl -X POST "$URL/docs" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"doc_id": 1, "title": "Hello", "body": "world"}'
# {"title_upper":"HELLO","summary":"Hello"}

The same file runs on Pixeltable Cloud. Create an API key in the Cloud dashboard, set PIXELTABLE_API_KEY, name the database in pixeltable.toml, then target it by URI. pxt db update creates or updates the hosted database; it does not insert rows. pxt service run is local only and cannot target Cloud.

pxt db update pxt://org:mydb
pxt schema update app.py pxt://org:mydb
pxt service update app.py pxt://org:mydb

Chat agent or video search

uvx pixeltable-new copies one app from the starter kit. The default copy is a chat app; pass agent as the last argument to pxt schema update. --video copies video search; pass videointel.

uvx pixeltable-new myapp
cd myapp
uv sync
pxt schema update app.py agent
pxt service update app.py agent

Inserting into the knowledge table needs no API key. The /ask route needs ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.

To mount the routes on an existing FastAPI app, app.include_router(...). HTTP serving. To skip endpoints, run pxt schema update, insert from Python, then export_sql. Self-hosting.

Coding agents

Hand the agent get-started.md. That playbook installs the package, the skill, and MCP. How the skill writes app.py: AI coding agents. Docs capability file: skill.md.

npx skills add pixeltable/pixeltable-skill

Skill 2.8.0+ writes a TableModel in app.py. If your agent emits create_table in application code, the installed skill is stale: reinstall it.

Notebooks and tests still use pxt.create_table(). An app puts tables in app.py and creates them with pxt schema update.

License

Apache 2.0. Contributing · Discord

Release files for pixeltable 0.7.7

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for pixeltable 0.7.7
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
pixeltable-0.7.7-py3-none-any.whl 1.3 MB Sep 10, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Release files / pixeltable-0.7.7-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	pixeltable-0.7.7-py3-none-any.whl
Size	1.3 MB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`0642d78d3f90766cc6cec60c587b9e19682df1241dde8000d8e1856a2838610f`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`085e94448734f4b65dcdd99eb6eb2cd465add174697f1e5f0d339adb29cd855a`
Upload date	Sep 10, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`uv/0.12.3 {"installer":{"name":"uv","version":"0.12.3","subcommand":["publish"]},"python":null,"implementation":{"name":null,"version":null},"distro":{"name":"macOS","version":null,"id":null,"libc":null},"system":{"name":null,"release":null},"cpu":null,"openssl_version":null,"setuptools_version":null,"rustc_version":null,"ci":null}`