pyronova 2.1.5

High-performance Python web framework powered by Rust — 2x faster than Robyn

Pyronova 🔥

High-performance Python web framework powered by Rust.

Built on Per-Interpreter GIL (PEP 684) and a Rust async core, Pyronova runs Python handlers across all CPU cores in a single process.

• 902k req/s on Linux (AMD Ryzen 7840HS, 8C/16T) under TechEmpower-style pipelined plaintext (wrk -t8 -c256 --pipeline 16).
• 423k req/s on the standard single-route baseline (wrk -t4 -c100, no pipeline), +0.8% vs v1.4.0 on the same hardware.
• 2.7× faster than Robyn at equal scale (16 workers each), 1/3 the memory.
• Sustained 400k QPS: RSS grew 4 MB over 73.8M requests in 180s (≈0 B/req). Zero errors, zero leaks.

What's new in v1.6

• pyronova CLI — pyronova run <module:app> (prod), pyronova dev <module:app> (hot-reload + debug logging), pyronova routes <module:app> (print the route table). python -m pyronova ... works the same way.
• Kubernetes health probes — one-liner app.enable_health_probes() registers /livez (always 200) and /readyz (runs every @app.readiness_check("name"), sync or async; any failure → 503 with JSON diagnostics).
• Prometheus metrics — app.enable_metrics() exposes GET /metrics with RED-style counters (total, by status class, by method, latency sum + count). Counters live in app.state so they aggregate across sub-interpreter workers.
• X-Request-ID — app.enable_request_id() mints a UUID if the client didn't send one, echoes it back on every response, and pushes it into the per-request ctx for downstream handlers.
• Request-scoped context — from pyronova.context import ctx; ContextVar-backed ctx.get/set/request_id(), reset per request so recycled worker threads don't leak state.
• Settings — thin pydantic-settings base (lazy import, opt-in) with Pyronova-friendly defaults (case-insensitive, ignore unknown, .env).
• TestClient v2 — params=, persistent cookie jar, follow_redirects=False, OPTIONS/HEAD, .ok/.raise_for_status(), websocket_connect() via the websockets package.
• Streaming DB cursor — pool.fetch_iter(sql, ...) yields Postgres rows with O(1) memory (see docs/positioning-and-roadmap.md).
• Misc.: admission gate skipped for small bodies (fixes HTTP/2 regression), drain_count() on BodyStream for upload throughput, fast-path responses with zero-cost guard, TLS handshake 10 s timeout (Slowloris).

What's new in v1.5.0

• Sub-interpreter memory-leak root cause closed. Unbounded RSS growth under sustained load, present since v1.4.0, traced to cross-thread PyThreadState reuse and fixed via PyThreadState_New per worker. See docs/advisor-triage-2026-04-19.md and CHANGELOG for the full writeup.
• Raw C-API _Request type built via PyType_FromSpec with a deterministic Rust-owned tp_dealloc — replaces the Python-class stub, closes a CPython subtype_dealloc hazard, restores proper __del__ / tp_finalize semantics in sub-interp handlers.
• 22 correctness / hygiene fixes from an adversarial review pass (C-API reentrancy, graceful shutdown, TOCTOU in static file serving, CORS misconfig warnings, URL-decoded path params, async middleware driving, …).
• Awaitable detection via tp_as_async->am_await pointer probe replaces the μs-level PyObject_HasAttrString("__await__").
• Benchmark infrastructure split — just bench-record / bench-compare gate on a minimal plaintext target; just bench-features measures the full demo; just bench-tfb-plaintext runs TechEmpower pipeline=16.
• Breaking: requires-python = ">=3.13" (was >=3.10). Uses PyThreadState_GetUnchecked added in CPython 3.13.

Full benchmark (v1.4.0 baseline, unchanged methodology): benchmarks/benchmark-14-linux.en.md

What others can't do, Pyronova has built-in

• SharedState — cross-worker memory sharing without Redis (nanosecond latency)
• AI-native — MCP server, MsgPack RPC, SSE streaming
• Observable — GIL watchdog, backpressure (503), request timeout (504)

from pyronova import Pyronova

app = Pyronova()

@app.get("/")
def index(req):
    return {"hello": "world"}

@app.get("/io")
async def io_heavy(req):
    import asyncio
    await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
    return "done"

app.run()

Why Pyronova?

The problem

AI applications in Python need high throughput and low memory. An AI agent backend handles thousands of concurrent LLM calls, RAG queries, and tool invocations — all I/O-heavy, all in Python. A quantitative trading gateway processes hundreds of real-time data feeds simultaneously. These workloads demand the performance of C++ with the ecosystem of Python.

But Python has the GIL (Global Interpreter Lock). One lock, one core, no parallelism. Every framework before Pyronova works around this with compromises.

What others do (and why it's not enough)

FastAPI chose async on a single core. Elegant for I/O, but one CPU-heavy request (JSON parsing, Pydantic validation, numpy computation) blocks the entire event loop. Scale via Gunicorn means duplicating the full Python runtime per process. At 15k req/s, you hit the ceiling.

Robyn replaced the Python event loop with Rust (Tokio). Better I/O, but Python handlers still run on one GIL. Scaling means 22+ OS processes (--fast), eating 447 MB. The Rust layer is fast; the Python layer is the bottleneck.

Multi-threading doesn't help. Python threads share one GIL — they take turns, not run in parallel. Adding threads adds context-switch overhead without adding throughput. threading in Python is concurrency theater, not parallelism.

Free-threaded Python (no-GIL, PEP 703) removes the lock but makes every Python object operation slower (atomic reference counting). The ecosystem isn't ready — most C extensions assume the GIL exists. It trades one problem for another.

What Pyronova does differently

Pyronova multiplies the GIL. Using Per-Interpreter GIL (PEP 684), each worker gets its own independent Python interpreter with its own GIL inside a single process. True multi-core parallelism, zero memory duplication, zero IPC overhead.

FastAPI:  1 process × 1 GIL × async tricks     = fast I/O, slow CPU, 15k QPS
Robyn:    16 processes × 16 GILs × 16× memory  = brute force, 156k QPS, 583 MB
Pyronova:     1 process × 16 GILs × shared memory   = elegant, 429k QPS, 189 MB

This matters for AI:

• LLM gateway — thousands of concurrent await calls, each taking 2-5 seconds. Pyronova's async pool handles 133k concurrent I/O operations.
• Agent orchestration — multiple agents computing simultaneously. Each sub-interpreter runs at full CPU speed without blocking others.
• Memory efficiency — deploy 3x more instances on the same hardware. Pyronova 189 MB for 16 workers vs Robyn 583 MB. On a 512 MB container, Pyronova runs 16 parallel workers; Robyn fits 12 at best.
• State sharing — cross-worker app.state with nanosecond latency. No Redis, no serialization, no network hop. Session management, caching, and coordination built into the framework.

Performance

Benchmarked on Linux (AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS, 8C/16T), Python 3.12, wrk -t4 -c100 -d10s.

Full report: benchmarks/benchmark-14-linux.md

Throughput (requests/sec)

Route	Pyronova	P50	P99
GET / (plain text)	429,000	185μs	579μs
GET /json	405,000	196μs	599μs
GET /user/42 (path param)	395,000	201μs	641μs
POST /echo (JSON parse)	372,000	214μs	785μs
GET /compute (CPU-bound)	379,000	211μs	772μs

Pyronova vs Robyn (fair comparison)

Both frameworks given 16 workers on the same hardware. Robyn: --processes 16 --workers 2.

Route	Pyronova (1 proc, 16 sub-interp)	Robyn (16 proc × 2 workers)	Ratio
GET /	429k req/s	156k req/s	2.7x
GET /json	405k req/s	155k req/s	2.6x
GET /user/42	395k req/s	144k req/s	2.7x
POST /echo	372k req/s	144k req/s	2.6x
GET /compute	379k req/s	145k req/s	2.6x

Resource efficiency

Resource	Pyronova	Robyn (16 proc)
Memory	189 MB	583 MB
Processes	1	16
QPS per MB	2,268 req/s/MB	268 req/s/MB
Cross-worker state	Built-in (DashMap, nanosecond)	Needs Redis

Pyronova achieves 2.7x the throughput with 1/3 the memory. Per-MB efficiency is 8.5x better.

Stability (5-minute sustained load)

Sustained 300s stress test, wrk -t4 -c100.

Metric	Linux (v1.4.0)	macOS (v1.2.0)
Sustained QPS	400,683 req/s	214,641 req/s
Total requests	120,209,758 (120M)	64,410,189 (64M)
Non-2xx responses	0	0
Socket errors	0	0
Memory growth	169 → 196 MB (+27 MB)	1712 → 752 KB
Max latency	9.02ms	39.98ms

120 million requests, zero errors, zero memory leaks.

Stress test (c=1024)

Metric	Result
QPS	356,328 req/s
P50 / P99	1.40ms / 3.15ms
Errors	0

Graceful degradation under extreme concurrency — still 356k QPS with zero errors.

Pyronova vs Robyn: feature comparison

Capability	Pyronova	Robyn
Architecture	1 process, N sub-interpreters	N OS processes
SharedState (cross-worker)	Built-in (DashMap, nanosecond)	Not supported (needs Redis)
MCP Server (AI tool protocol)	Built-in	Supported (experimental)
MsgPack RPC	Built-in + magic client	Not supported
SSE Streaming	Built-in (Stream)	Supported
GIL Watchdog	Built-in (contention + hold time)	Not supported
Backpressure (503 overload)	Built-in (bounded channels)	Not supported
Request Timeout (504)	Built-in (30s zombie reaper)	Not supported
Hybrid Dispatch (gil=True)	Auto-routes to main interpreter	Not supported
TestClient	Built-in	Not built-in
WebSocket	Supported	Supported
CORS	Supported	Supported
Static Files	Supported (async, no GIL)	Supported
Middleware	before/after hooks	Supported
Hot Reload	Supported	Supported

Who is Pyronova for?

AI Agent servers — Build MCP-compatible tool servers, LLM gateways, and multi-agent orchestration backends. Handle thousands of concurrent LLM streaming responses with SSE. SharedState coordinates agents without Redis.

Quantitative trading — Process real-time market data feeds with sub-millisecond P50 latency. Sub-interpreter parallelism runs strategy computations across all cores without GIL contention. WebSocket support for live order book streaming.

High-throughput microservices — Internal service mesh nodes that need maximum req/s with minimum memory. MsgPack RPC for binary-efficient inter-service communication. Backpressure (503) protects downstream systems under load spikes.

Edge/IoT gateways — Run on memory-constrained devices (512 MB containers, Raspberry Pi). 67 MB for 10 parallel workers vs 447 MB for the alternatives.

How Pyronova works

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Pyronova Architecture                     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Python handlers (def / async def / gil=True)           │
│      ↓                                                   │
│  Rust core (Tokio + Hyper)                              │
│  ├── Sync worker pool ──→ N sub-interpreters (OWN_GIL)  │
│  ├── Async worker pool ──→ N asyncio event loops        │
│  ├── Hybrid dispatch ──→ main interpreter (numpy/C ext) │
│  ├── SharedState ──→ DashMap (nanosecond, cross-worker) │
│  └── Backpressure ──→ bounded channels (503 on overload)│
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Feature Comparison

Routing & Request/Response

Feature	Pyronova	FastAPI	Robyn
Decorator routing	✅	✅	✅
Path params /hello/{name}	✅	✅	✅
Query params	✅	✅	✅
JSON parsing	✅	✅	✅
Pydantic validation	✅ model=	✅ native	✅
File upload (multipart)	✅	✅	✅
Cookie read/write	✅	✅	✅
Redirect	✅	✅	✅
Custom status/headers	✅	✅	✅
Static files	✅	✅	✅

Protocols

Feature	Pyronova	FastAPI	Robyn
HTTP/1.1	✅	✅	✅
HTTP/2	✅	✅ (Hypercorn)	✅
WebSocket (text+binary)	✅	✅	✅
SSE streaming	✅	✅	✅

Middleware & Security

Feature	Pyronova	FastAPI	Robyn
before/after hooks	✅	✅ middleware	✅
CORS	✅ built-in	✅	✅
Body size limit	✅ 10MB	✅	✅
Backpressure (503)	✅	❌	❌
Path traversal protection	✅	✅	❌
Worker panic protection	✅ catch_unwind	N/A	N/A

AI & Microservices

Feature	Pyronova	FastAPI	Robyn
MCP Server (AI tools)	✅ native	❌ (third-party)	✅
MsgPack RPC	✅	❌	❌
Content negotiation	✅ JSON/MsgPack	JSON only	JSON only
Magic RPC Client	✅	❌	❌
SharedState (no Redis)	✅ nanosecond	❌ needs Redis	❌ needs Redis

Concurrency (Pyronova unique)

Feature	Pyronova	FastAPI	Robyn
Sub-interpreter parallelism	✅ Per-GIL	❌	❌
Hybrid GIL dispatch	✅	❌	❌
Auto sync/async dual pool	✅ zero-loss	❌	❌
Multi-process	— (not needed)	✅ Gunicorn	✅ --fast

Observability (Pyronova unique)

Feature	Pyronova	FastAPI	Robyn
GIL Watchdog	✅	❌	❌
Memory RSS monitoring	✅	❌	❌
Request counters	✅	❌	❌
Structured logging	✅	✅	✅
Prometheus /metrics	✅ app.enable_metrics()	third-party	❌
Health probes /livez + /readyz	✅ app.enable_health_probes()	third-party	❌
X-Request-ID + request ctx	✅ app.enable_request_id() + ctx	third-party	❌

Developer Experience

Feature	Pyronova	FastAPI	Robyn	Notes
Type stubs (.pyi)	✅	✅ native	✅
TestClient	✅ full (cookies, redirects, ws)	✅	❌
Env var config	✅	✅	✅
Hot reload	✅ reload=True / pyronova dev	✅ --reload	✅
CLI (run / dev / routes)	✅ pyronova	✅ fastapi (newer)	❌
Pydantic-settings config	✅ Settings	✅	❌
OpenAPI docs	—	✅	✅	Pyronova uses MCP for AI discovery; type hints serve as docs
Dependency injection	—	✅ Depends()	✅	Pyronova uses before_request hooks for the same purpose

C Extension Compatibility

Python C extensions (PyO3/Rust, C/C++) use global state that isn't compatible with sub-interpreters (PEP 684). This is a CPython ecosystem limitation, not a Pyronova limitation.

Library	Sub-interp	gil=True	Why
pydantic	❌	✅	pydantic-core is PyO3/Rust, global static state
numpy	❌	✅	C extension hardcodes "load once per process"
pandas	❌	✅	Depends on numpy
scipy	❌	✅	Depends on numpy
orjson	❌	✅	PyO3/Rust module
sqlalchemy	❌	✅	C extensions (greenlet, cython)
pillow	❌	✅	C extension with global state
httpx	✅	✅	Pure Python
requests	✅	✅	Pure Python
json, hashlib, math	✅	✅	stdlib, multi-interp safe
asyncio, threading	✅	✅	stdlib, per-interpreter loops
dataclasses, typing	✅	✅	Pure Python
re, datetime, os	✅	✅	stdlib

Rule of thumb: if pip show <package> shows a .so/.pyd file, it likely needs gil=True. Pure Python packages always work in sub-interpreters.

The fix is simple: add gil=True to routes that need C extensions.

# Fast route — sub-interpreter, 429k req/s, no C extensions needed
@app.get("/fast")
def fast(req):
    return {"hello": "world"}

# Heavy route — GIL main interpreter, full C extension support
@app.post("/analyze", model=AnalysisRequest, gil=True)
def analyze(req, data):
    import numpy as np
    import pandas as pd
    return {"mean": float(np.mean(data.values))}

Pyronova auto-detects which routes need GIL and dispatches accordingly. Fast routes stay at 429k req/s; GIL routes get full ecosystem access. Both run concurrently in the same server.

When will this be fixed? When PyO3 and numpy add PEP 684 multi-phase init support. Tracking: PyO3#3451, numpy#24003. When they do, these libraries will run at full speed in sub-interpreters — no gil=True needed.

Why no OpenAPI? Pyronova targets high-performance APIs and AI agents, not browser-based API explorers. For AI tool discovery, MCP is a more modern protocol. For human developers, Pydantic models + type stubs provide the same contract guarantees.

Why no dependency injection? before_request hooks solve the same problem (auth, DB connections, shared logic) with less magic and better debuggability. DI adds framework coupling without performance benefit.

Install

# From source (requires Rust toolchain + Python 3.12+)
git clone https://github.com/moomoo-tech/pyronova.git
cd pyronova
python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install maturin
maturin develop --release

Demos

Three production-grade example applications. Each demonstrates a different real-world use case with multiple Pyronova features working together.

# Install dependencies first
pip install pydantic numpy msgpack httpx

# AI Agent Server — MCP tools, SSE streaming, session memory
python examples/ai_agent_server.py

# Trading Data API — numpy analytics, WebSocket, Pydantic, RPC
python examples/trading_api.py

# Full-stack REST API — CRUD, cookie auth, file upload
python examples/fullstack_api.py

AI Agent Server (examples/ai_agent_server.py)

Build MCP-compatible AI tool servers with streaming token output.

python examples/ai_agent_server.py

# Chat (simulated LLM)
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/chat \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"prompt": "What is Python?", "session_id": "user1"}'

# SSE streaming (token-by-token, like ChatGPT)
curl -N http://127.0.0.1:8000/stream?prompt=hello

# MCP tool discovery (for Claude Desktop)
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list","params":{}}'

# Session memory
curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/memory/user1

Features used: MCP Server, SSE (Stream), async handlers, SharedState, Pydantic, CORS

Trading Data API (examples/trading_api.py)

Real-time market data with numpy analytics and WebSocket streaming.

python examples/trading_api.py

# Market quote
curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/market/AAPL

# Submit order (Pydantic validated)
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/order \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"ticker": "AAPL", "side": "buy", "quantity": 100, "price": 150.5}'

# Portfolio analytics (numpy)
curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/analytics/portfolio

# RPC call from another service
python -c "
from pyronova import RPCClient
with RPCClient('http://127.0.0.1:8000') as c:
    print(c.get_signals(tickers=['AAPL', 'TSLA']))
"

Features used: numpy (gil=True), Pydantic, WebSocket, SharedState, MsgPack RPC, CORS

Full-stack REST API (examples/fullstack_api.py)

Complete CRUD application with authentication and file uploads.

python examples/fullstack_api.py

# Register + login
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/auth/register \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"username": "alice", "email": "[e-mail]", "password": "secret123"}'

curl -c cookies.txt -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/auth/login \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"username": "alice", "password": "secret123"}'

# Create item (authenticated)
curl -b cookies.txt -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/items \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"name": "Widget", "price": 9.99, "tags": ["new"]}'

# List items (with pagination)
curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/items?page=1&per_page=10

Features used: Pydantic, Cookie auth, File upload, Redirect, SharedState as DB, CORS, structured logging

Quick Start

Basic API

from pyronova import Pyronova, Response

app = Pyronova()

@app.get("/")
def index(req):
    return {"message": "Hello from Pyronova!"}

@app.get("/user/{name}")
def greet(req):
    return {"name": req.params["name"]}

@app.get("/search")
def search(req):
    return {"q": req.query_params.get("q", "")}

@app.post("/data")
def receive(req):
    return req.json()

app.run()  # http://127.0.0.1:8000

Async Handlers

def and async def coexist at full speed — auto-detected, auto-routed.

@app.get("/fast")
def fast(req):              # → sync pool (429k req/s)
    return "instant"

@app.get("/io")
async def io_heavy(req):    # → async pool (133k req/s)
    result = await fetch_from_database()
    return {"data": result}

Pydantic Validation

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field

class Order(BaseModel):
    ticker: str = Field(max_length=5)
    amount: int = Field(gt=0)
    price: float

@app.post("/order", model=Order)
def place_order(req, order: Order):
    return {"total": order.amount * order.price}
# Invalid → 422 with validation errors

CORS

app.enable_cors()  # Allow all origins
app.enable_cors(allow_origins=["https://example.com"], allow_credentials=True)

Cookies

from pyronova.cookies import get_cookie, set_cookie, delete_cookie

@app.get("/login")
def login(req):
    return set_cookie(Response(body="ok"), "session", "abc", httponly=True)

@app.get("/me")
def me(req):
    return {"session": get_cookie(req, "session")}

File Upload

from pyronova.uploads import parse_multipart

@app.post("/upload")
def upload(req):
    f = parse_multipart(req)["file"]
    return {"filename": f.filename, "size": f.size}

Redirect

from pyronova import redirect

@app.get("/old")
def old(req):
    return redirect("/new")

WebSocket

@app.websocket("/ws")
def echo(ws):
    while True:
        msg = ws.recv()
        if msg is None: break
        ws.send(f"echo: {msg}")

SSE Streaming

from pyronova import Stream
import threading

@app.get("/stream", gil=True)
def stream(req):
    s = Stream()
    def gen():
        for token in ["Hello", " ", "World"]:
            s.send_event(token)
        s.close()
    threading.Thread(target=gen).start()
    return s

MCP Server (AI Agent)

@app.mcp.tool(description="Add two numbers")
def add(a: int, b: int) -> int:
    return a + b
# Claude Desktop → http://localhost:8000/mcp

RPC (MsgPack)

@app.rpc("/rpc/compute")
def compute(data):
    return {"result": data["a"] + data["b"]}

# Client:
from pyronova import RPCClient
with RPCClient("http://server:8000") as c:
    c.compute(a=3, b=5)  # → {"result": 8}

Shared State

app.state["key"] = "value"     # Write (any worker)
val = app.state["key"]         # Read (nanosecond, no Redis)

numpy / C Extensions

@app.get("/compute", gil=True)
def compute(req):
    import numpy as np
    return {"mean": float(np.mean(np.random.randn(10000)))}

Configuration

PYRONOVA_HOST=0.0.0.0 PYRONOVA_PORT=9000 PYRONOVA_WORKERS=16 PYRONOVA_LOG=1 python app.py

Monitoring

PYRONOVA_METRICS=1 python app.py   # Enable GIL watchdog

Testing

from pyronova.testing import TestClient

client = TestClient(app)
resp = client.get("/")
assert resp.status_code == 200
assert resp.json()["hello"] == "world"

Architecture

Python handlers (def / async def / gil=True)
    ↓
Pyronova (Rust core, 12 modules)
├── Tokio runtime (HTTP/1+2, WebSocket, SSE)
├── Sub-interpreter pool (N independent GILs)
│   ├── Sync workers (def → 429k req/s)
│   └── Async workers (async def → 133k req/s)
├── Hybrid GIL dispatch (gil=True → numpy/C extensions)
├── SharedState (DashMap, cross-worker, nanosecond)
├── GIL Watchdog (contention + hold time + queue depth)
└── Backpressure (bounded channels, 503 on overload)

Sub-interpreter Safe Ecosystem

Pyronova's sub-interpreters deliver 429k req/s, but C extensions (Pydantic, NumPy, Pandas) can't run in them. Instead of fighting the ecosystem, Pyronova offers a Golden Path: modern, pure-Python alternatives that are not just safe — they're faster.

Category	Traditional (needs gil=True)	Golden Path (sub-interp safe)
Validation	Pydantic V2	msgspec / mashumaro
Data	Pandas + NumPy	Polars
HTTP Client	requests	httpx
JSON	orjson	stdlib json / msgspec
Database	psycopg2	psycopg v3 (pure Python)

The rule: pure Python = sub-interp safe. C extensions = use gil=True.

Not just safe — faster

Same endpoints, same logic. Pyronova with sub-interp safe libs vs FastAPI with the traditional Pydantic stack:

Test	FastAPI + Pydantic	Pyronova + Golden Path	Speedup	Latency reduction
Health Check	9,031 req/s	214,714 req/s	23.8x	11.1ms → 0.38ms
JSON Echo	7,602 req/s	209,012 req/s	27.5x	13.2ms → 0.40ms
CPU-bound (10k moving avg)	263 req/s	599 req/s	2.3x	374ms → 165ms
Validation	7,345 req/s	208,439 req/s	28.4x	13.8ms → 0.41ms

The traditional stack is single-threaded — the GIL serializes every request. Pyronova runs 10 sub-interpreters in parallel, each with its own GIL. The Golden Path libraries are pure Python, so they load cleanly in every interpreter. The result: 24-28x throughput, 29-34x lower latency.

Run the benchmark yourself: bash benchmarks/run_comparison.sh

"Pyronova doesn't force you to change, but it rewards you when you do."

Full ecosystem guide: docs/subinterp-safe-ecosystem.md

Limitations

Pyronova's sub-interpreter architecture delivers extreme performance but comes with specific constraints. All are caused by CPython ecosystem limitations, not Pyronova design choices, and all have clear workarounds.

C extensions in sub-interpreters

What: Libraries built with PyO3 (Rust) or C/C++ extensions cannot be imported inside sub-interpreters. This includes pydantic, numpy, pandas, orjson, and most compiled packages.

Why: CPython's PEP 684 requires extensions to declare multi-interpreter support via Py_MOD_PER_INTERPRETER_GIL_SUPPORTED. Most libraries haven't done this yet. PyO3 uses global static state that conflicts with multiple interpreters.

Workaround: Add gil=True to routes that need these libraries. They run on the main interpreter with full ecosystem access while other routes run at 429k req/s on sub-interpreters.

@app.get("/fast")                    # Sub-interpreter: 429k req/s
def fast(req): return "hello"

@app.post("/analyze", gil=True)      # Main interpreter: numpy works
def analyze(req):
    import numpy as np
    return {"result": float(np.mean([1,2,3]))}

When fixed: When PyO3 (#3451) and numpy (#24003) add PEP 684 support.

Python 3.12+ required

What: Pyronova requires Python 3.12 or later.

Why: Per-Interpreter GIL (PEP 684) was introduced in Python 3.12. This is the core technology that enables Pyronova's parallelism.

Workaround: None. Python 3.12+ is required. Consider using pyenv to manage multiple Python versions.

Build from source

What: Pyronova must be compiled from source using Rust and Maturin. No pre-built wheels on PyPI yet.

Why: The project is pre-release. PyPI binary wheels for multiple platforms require CI/CD infrastructure.

Workaround: Install Rust (curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh) and build with maturin develop --release.

No OpenAPI auto-documentation

What: Pyronova doesn't generate Swagger/OpenAPI documentation from route definitions.

Why: Pyronova targets high-performance backends and AI agents, not browser-based API explorers. For AI tool discovery, Pyronova provides native MCP (Model Context Protocol) support, which is purpose-built for AI applications. For human developers, Pydantic models and type stubs provide compile-time contract guarantees.

Single-process only

What: Pyronova runs as a single OS process. No multi-process mode like Gunicorn or Robyn --fast.

Why: This is by design. Sub-interpreters provide multi-core parallelism within one process, with 6.7x less memory than multi-process alternatives. SharedState works without Redis. Adding multi-process would destroy these advantages.

Requirements

• Python 3.12+ (PEP 684 sub-interpreters)
• Rust toolchain (build from source)
• macOS or Linux

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE for details.