pyre-icp 1.1.1

PYRE — Flask-flavored Python on the Internet Computer: certified reads, urllib-shaped outcalls, stable-memory collections

Write recognizable Python — Flask-style routes, a data layer, an outbound HTTP call — and run it on the Internet Computer (ICP), a decentralized WASM host. No Candid, no Rust, no Motoko.

What that buys you over Flask-on-a-VPS:

• Certified responses — clients cryptographically verify your API's answers against the network's root of trust, not "trust the server."
• Threshold-signed JWTs — the subnet signs cooperatively; there is no private key anywhere to steal.
• Consensus-safe randomness & audited encryption — the platform footguns are defused; the safe paths look like ordinary Python.
• ~$0.40/month for a light backend, measured on mainnet.

from pyre import App, Request, Response, data

app = App()
app.enable_cors(origins="*")

items = data.collection("items", schema={"name": str, "qty": (int, 1)})

@app.get("/health", certified=True)     # served with a verifiable certificate
def health(req: Request) -> Response:
    return Response.json({"status": "ok"})

@app.post("/items")                     # runs as an update: writes persist
def create_item(req: Request) -> Response:
    return Response.json(items.insert(req.json()), status=201)

@app.get("/items")
def list_items(req: Request) -> Response:
    return Response.json(items.list(limit=20, after=req.query.get("after")))

Outbound HTTPS looks like urllib, but async — because on ICP it is:

from pyre.compat import urllib_request as urllib

@app.get("/quote", update=True)
async def quote(req):
    resp = await urllib.urlopen("https://api.example.com/quote",
                                max_response_bytes=8_192)
    return Response.json({"upstream_status": resp.status, "data": resp.json()})

And ICP's genuinely differentiated capabilities read like ordinary Python (every one opt-in — a plain CRUD app never meets them):

from pyre import random as prandom, time as ptime, sign
from pyre.adapters import supabase

@app.get("/id")
def new_id(req):
    return Response.json({"id": prandom.uuid4()})   # consensus-safe; naive uuid4 fails loudly

@app.get("/attest", update=True)
async def attest(req):
    token = await sign.jwt({"sub": req.caller, "iat": ptime.now()})
    return Response.json({"jwt": token})            # threshold-signed: no key to steal

@app.get("/external", update=True)
async def external(req):
    db = supabase.Client(url=SUPA_URL, anon_key=SUPA_KEY)
    return Response.json(await db.table("items").select().limit(10))

Install

pip install pyre-icp

The distribution is pyre-icp; the import package and the CLI are both pyre. To deploy canisters you also need, one time:

• Python 3.10.x (Kybra's RustPython targets 3.10 — pyenv recommended)
• dfx (the ICP SDK): DFXVM_INIT_YES=true sh -ci "$(curl -fsSL https://internetcomputer.org/install.sh)"
• Kybra in your project's deploy venv: pip install kybra==0.7.1 + python -m kybra install-dfx-extension

Then:

pyre new myapp --template crud-kv     # bare-api | crud-kv | outbound-proxy
cd myapp
pyre dev src/app.py                   # instant local server, no replica needed
dfx start --background && dfx deploy  # real local canister
dfx deploy --network ic               # mainnet

The quickstart walks the whole path in ~15 minutes.

The API surface

Module	What it gives you	Docs
pyre.App / Request / Response	Flask-style routing, path params, hooks, error handlers, CORS, certified routes	api.md
pyre.data / pyre.kv	Collections + KV over stable memory — survives upgrades; schemas, pagination, lazy migration	api.md
pyre.validate	Dict-schema request validation → clean per-field 400s	api.md
pyre.auth	Bearer / API-key / HTTP Basic middleware, constant-time, hash-stored creds	api.md
pyre.compat.urllib_request	urllib-shaped async HTTPS outcalls with determinism transforms	concepts.md
pyre.random / pyre.uuid / pyre.time	Consensus-safe RNG, UUIDs, timestamps (naive stdlib entropy fails loudly in-canister — by design)	random-uuid-time.md
pyre.crypto	AES-GCM, ChaCha20-Poly1305, sha2/sha3/blake2/blake3, HMAC — audited RustCrypto under the hood	crypto.md
pyre.sign	Threshold tECDSA signatures + ES256K JWTs — no private key exists	api.md
pyre.adapters	Supabase (PostgREST) + Upstash Redis over outcalls, amplification-safe writes	adapters.md
pyre.log	Structured logging retrievable via dfx canister logs	observability.md
pyre CLI	pyre new (templates), pyre dev (local server + footgun warnings)	quickstart.md

All docs: quickstart · concepts · API reference · troubleshooting · stdlib support matrix · secrets & outcalls · extending with Rust · observability · LLM/agent skill file · reference app: examples/food_tracker

The four ICP concepts PYRE teaches (and hides everything else)

1. Query vs. update calls. Queries are fast, read-only, uncertified; updates go through consensus (~1–2 s) and can write. PYRE maps GET → query, writes/async → update; honesty guards raise if you write state or make outcalls from a query.
2. Outbound HTTP is async and consensus-gated. Every replica performs your outcall independently and must agree byte-for-byte — hence await, and hence transforms.
3. The determinism transform. Upstream responses differ per replica (Date headers, request ids). Outcalls run through a transform that canonicalizes the response before consensus; pyre dev shows you what gets stripped before you ever deploy.
4. Canisters are long-lived actors. The interpreter boots once at install and stays warm — no cold starts, but funding (cycles) and instruction budgets are real. make budgets measures; DECISIONS.md records.

Full explanations with failure symptoms in concepts.md.

Mainnet-proven, not aspirational

Every load-bearing claim was tested against ICP mainnet (13-node subnet) and recorded in DECISIONS.md: response certification verified by the official DFINITY verifier (BLS to the NNS root key, tamper/stale rejected), outcall determinism proven across real replicas, threshold signatures externally verified (26.19B cycles ≈ 3.5¢ each), 13× write-amplification converging to single rows through the adapters, and a light backend costing ≈ $0.40/month.

Working from a clone

make setup          # venvs (Python 3.10.7 via pyenv), kybra, dfx extension
make test           # ~240 unit tests, no replica needed
make dev            # instant local server for examples/rest_api
make start deploy   # local replica + all example canisters
make e2e            # 20-check acceptance suite
make pocketic       # canister-level integration tests
make budget-gate    # instruction + wasm-size/idle-burn regression gates

CI runs the same gates on every push. See CONTRIBUTING.

Scope fences

Pure Python only — no C extensions, no Pydantic. No sockets/threads (stubbed with guidance), no websockets/streaming. Secret-bearing outcalls (calling Stripe/OpenAI with a private key) are a documented limitation until v1.2's signed proxy.

License

MIT © Sweet Papa Technologies