praixis 1.2.0

Zero-dependency Python client for the Praixis Engine API

Praixis Engine — Python Client

A lightweight Python client for the Praixis Engine API, in both sync and async flavors.

• PraixisClient — synchronous, zero dependencies, built entirely on the standard library (urllib, json, uuid), so an upstream package release can never break it.
• AsyncPraixisClient — async/await, built on httpx (the only optional dependency). Imported lazily, so the sync client stays dependency-free.
• Same surface in both: resource-grouped client.chat and client.rag — chat
  • file summary, and RAG ingest/ask/search/embed/compare.

The companion Node.js client lives in its own repository.

Installation

pip install praixis            # sync client only, zero dependencies
pip install "praixis[async]"   # also installs httpx for the async client

Or vendor the praixis/ package directly into your project — the sync client has no deps.

Requires Python 3.10+.

Authentication

Every endpoint uses an app-level API key sent as the X-API-Key header.

from praixis import PraixisClient

client = PraixisClient("http://localhost:8080", "your-api-key")

Admin/system routes (/api/system/*, HTTP Basic auth) are intentionally not part of this SDK. They already have a browser UI, and baking admin credentials into application code would be a security anti-pattern. The X-API-Key this SDK uses is an app-level credential, not an admin one.

Chat

# Start a conversation
reply = client.chat.send("Hello, world!")
print(reply["session_id"], reply["content"])

# Continue it
client.chat.send("And again?", session_id=reply["session_id"])

# JSON-mode response, custom system prompt. "content" is still a string — the
# model's raw JSON text — which you parse yourself.
import json
r = client.chat.send("List 3 colors", response_format="json", system_prompt="Be terse")
colors = json.loads(r["content"])

# Sessions
client.chat.list_sessions()          # -> [session_id, ...]
client.chat.get_history(session_id)  # -> {"session_id", "history": [...]}
client.chat.clear_history(session_id)

# Per-session token usage. Counts the streamed answers (chat and RAG), RAG query
# reformulation, and compaction calls; counters expire with the session.
# estimated_context_tokens shows how close the session is to auto-compacting.
usage = client.chat.get_usage(session_id)
# -> {"session_id", "requests", "prompt_tokens", "completion_tokens",
#     "total_tokens", "estimated_context_tokens"}

# Compact a session on demand: fold older exchanges into an LLM-written summary
# (the server also does this automatically near its context budget). Raises
# APIError 400 when there's nothing to fold yet.
client.chat.compact(session_id)
# -> {"status", "session_id", "messages_before", "messages_after",
#     "estimated_tokens_before", "estimated_tokens_after"}

# Summarize an uploaded file (path, or (filename, content[, content_type])).
# Give the filename a .pdf/.docx/.txt extension — it's the primary format
# signal; content_type is only the fallback for extension-less names.
client.chat.summarize_file("report.pdf")
client.chat.summarize_file(("notes.txt", "raw text here"))

Streaming

The server's generative endpoints accept a stream toggle. The buffered methods (send, ask, summarize_file, compare, summarize_document) send stream=false and return the server's native JSON — the right default for scripts and backends. The answer is always under content: chat.send returns {"session_id", "content"}, rag.ask returns {"session_id", "search_query", "sources", "content"}, and compare / summarize_document / summarize_file return {..., "content"}.

For token-by-token output, use the streaming variants, which return an iterator of {"type", "value"} events. Marker events (session_id, search_query, sources, file, progress, error) arrive before the token events that carry content:

for event in client.chat.stream("Tell me a story"):
    if event["type"] == "token":
        print(event["value"], end="", flush=True)
    elif event["type"] == "session_id":
        session_id = event["value"]

# Every buffered generative method has a streaming sibling:
#   client.rag.ask_stream(question, collection_name=...)   # session_id, search_query, sources, then tokens
#   client.chat.summarize_file_stream(file)                 # file, [progress...], then tokens
#   client.rag.compare_stream(coll, f1, f2)                 # tokens
#   client.rag.summarize_document_stream(coll, filename)    # file, then tokens

On the async client the same methods yield events with async for:

async for event in client.chat.stream("Tell me a story"):
    if event["type"] == "token":
        print(event["value"], end="", flush=True)

The request is sent on the first iteration, so connection and HTTP errors surface there. On the sync client the configured timeout bounds each read (an idle limit), not the stream's total duration.

RAG

# Ingest one or many documents into a collection
client.rag.upload("manual.pdf", collection_name="docs")
client.rag.upload([("a.txt", "..."), ("b.txt", "...")], collection_name="docs")

# Improved search: generate hypothetical questions in the background so plain,
# conversational queries match formal/technical text better. The document is
# searchable immediately; matching improves once generation finishes.
client.rag.upload("ley.pdf", collection_name="docs", improved_search=True)

File inputs. Each file may be a path, a (filename, content) pair, or a (filename, content, content_type) triple. The filename is the document's stored identity and the server's primary format signal, so prefer a .pdf/.docx/.txt extension. For extension-less names the server falls back to the declared content type (inferred from the extension when omitted), then to the file's magic bytes.

# Ask a question grounded in a collection
ans = client.rag.ask("What does the manual say about setup?", collection_name="docs")
print(ans["content"], ans["sources"], ans["search_query"])

# Restrict retrieval to one source document. Only the "source" key is honored;
# any other keys are ignored (not an error).
client.rag.ask("What is the notice period?", collection_name="docs",
               metadata_filter={"source": "policy.pdf"})

# Retrieval only: ranked raw chunks, no LLM. Pass a standalone query (not reformulated).
hits = client.rag.search("setup steps", collection_name="docs")
for r in hits["results"]:
    print(r["source"], r["score"], r["text"])  # hits["score_type"] is "rrf" or "similarity"

# Embeddings, listing, deletion, compare, summarize. compare/summarize_document
# return {..., "content"} and accept an optional response_format.
client.rag.embed("some text")
client.rag.list_collections()
client.rag.list_files("docs")
client.rag.delete_file("docs", "a.txt")
client.rag.delete_collection("docs")
client.rag.compare("docs", "a.txt", "b.txt")              # -> {"file_1", "file_2", "content"}
client.rag.summarize_document("docs", "manual.pdf")       # -> {"filename", "content"}

Error handling

from praixis import (
    APIError, AuthenticationError, NotFoundError,
    RateLimitError, APIConnectionError,
)

try:
    client.chat.send("hi")
except AuthenticationError:
    ...          # 401 / 403
except NotFoundError:
    ...          # 404
except RateLimitError:
    ...          # 429 (per-route limits)
except APIError as e:
    print(e.status_code, e.detail)
except APIConnectionError:
    ...          # never reached the server

All exceptions inherit from praixis.PraixisError.

Testing

Both suites run against a standard-library mock HTTP server — no network needed.

# Sync client — zero dependencies
uv run --no-project python tests/test_client.py

# Async client — needs httpx
uv run --with httpx python tests/test_async_client.py

The async suite also asserts that the sync and async resources expose an identical set of methods, so the two clients can't silently drift apart.

Privacy note

This client transmits whatever you pass to it (prompts, documents, session IDs) to the configured Praixis Engine server. Those payloads may contain personal data — handle them according to your own privacy obligations. The client stores nothing locally and adds no telemetry.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.