pynamodb-session-manager 0.1.1

Context manager that solves PynamoDB's static credential limitation by enabling dynamic AWS session switching.

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Welcome to pynamodb_session_manager Documentation

pynamodb_session_manager enables PynamoDB models to dynamically switch AWS credentials at runtime without modifying model definitions.

Problem Background

PynamoDB 6.0.0+ allows setting table-level connections by explicitly providing credentials, but this approach is not flexible or elegant for dynamic credential switching. Each PynamoDB model stores AWS session information in a _connection attribute. When you first use an ORM class to send a DynamoDB request, PynamoDB checks the model’s Meta class for AWS credentials. If none are found, it uses the default AWS profile and creates a connection stored in _connection, and then use it for all subsequent requests. This means that once a model’s connection is established, it cannot be changed without modifying the model’s definition or using a different model class.

As the author of boto-session-manager, an advanced boto3 session manager that can temporarily change the “Default AWS Profile” using context managers, I created this library to solve PynamoDB’s dynamic credential switching limitation.

How It Works

The use_boto_session context manager temporarily stores the current ORM class configuration, resets the _connection using the provided boto session manager, and conditionally reverts it back (depending on restore_on_exit parameter).

Quick Start

from pynamodb.models import Model
from pynamodb.attributes import UnicodeAttribute
from boto_session_manager import BotoSesManager

from pynamodb_session_manager import use_boto_session

# Define your PynamoDB model
class User(Model):
    class Meta:
        table_name = "users"
        region = "us-east-1"

    id = UnicodeAttribute(hash_key=True)

# Create session manager for different AWS account/profile
target_bsm = BotoSesManager(profile_name="target_profile")

# Use different credentials temporarily
with use_boto_session(target_bsm, User):
    # All operations here use target_profile credentials
    User.create_table(wait=True)
    user = User(id="123")
    user.save()

# Back to default credentials
# This will fail if table doesn't exist in default account
try:
    user = User.get("123")  # Uses default credentials
except Exception:
    print("Table not found in default account")

Advanced Usage

from pynamodb_session_manager import reset_connection

# Keep connection after context exits
with use_boto_session(target_bsm, User, restore_on_exit=False):
    user = User(id="456")
    user.save()

# Connection still uses target_profile
user = User.get("456")  # Still uses target_profile

# Manually reset to default credentials
reset_connection(User)
# Now uses default credentials again

Multiple Account Operations

default_bsm = BotoSesManager()  # Default profile
staging_bsm = BotoSesManager(profile_name="staging")
prod_bsm = BotoSesManager(profile_name="production")

# Create table in staging
with use_boto_session(staging_bsm, User):
    User.create_table(wait=True)

# Copy data from staging to production
with use_boto_session(staging_bsm, User):
    staging_users = list(User.scan())

with use_boto_session(prod_bsm, User):
    User.create_table(wait=True)
    for user in staging_users:
        user.save()

For comprehensive examples and advanced usage patterns, see the complete test suite.

Install

pynamodb_session_manager is released on PyPI, so all you need is to:

$ pip install pynamodb-session-manager

To upgrade to latest version:

$ pip install --upgrade pynamodb-session-manager