Sage PyCharm Stubgen

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Writing crypto Sage scripts? Stop switching to the source for every method name — completion and docs are right in the editor.

Generate and install static type stubs for SageMath so that PyCharm, Pyright, Jedi, and other Python-aware editors can understand dynamic Sage APIs such as Mod, GF, PolynomialRing, matrix, and vector.

No PyCharm plugin is required. The generated .pyi files are installed next to the Sage runtime modules in the active Python environment, which makes them visible to PyCharm's WSL interpreter indexer without adding a Sources Root to every project.

Tested with SageMath 10.9 on Python 3.13 in WSL. The generator discovers the installed Sage version at runtime instead of relying on a fixed symbol list.

What it fixes

SageMath exposes many objects dynamically and ships a large amount of compiled Cython code. A static analyzer may therefore report errors such as:

Cannot find reference 'Mod' in 'all'
Cannot find reference 'load' in 'persist'

It may also fail to complete methods returned by factories:

from sage.all import Mod

x = Mod(5, 29)
x.sqrt(all=True)

This project:

• converts installed .pyx files, with matching .pxd declarations when possible, into .pyi files using stubgen-pyx;
• generates explicit exports for the dynamic sage.all module;
• infers importable return types for dynamic factories from the active Sage environment;
• falls back from Cython source parsing to conservative runtime reflection when an individual extension cannot be parsed;
• bridges base classes that stubgen-pyx drops for old-style Parent classes so inherited members (__getitem__, _first_ngens, ...) stay reachable;
• declares Sage-specific members that static analysis cannot discover (FiniteField.characteristic, Integer arithmetic operators, CategoryObject._first_ngens);
• enriches every stub with docstrings so PyCharm's Quick Documentation (Ctrl+Q) explains what a function returns -- including curated Chinese docs with verified examples for CTF-critical APIs such as GF, from_integer/to_integer, log, discrete_log, CRT, and xgcd;
• validates every generated stub before installation;
• preserves existing Sage-owned or user-owned .pyi files;
• tracks its own files in a manifest so updates and uninstallations only touch files owned by this tool, refuses downgrade installs from older tool versions, and prefers source-declared factory return annotations (Sage upstream PRs #42670/#42672) over runtime probing.

Requirements

• SageMath installed in a Python/Conda environment
• Python 3.11 or newer
• PyCharm configured to use that same interpreter (WSL is supported)
• For first-class .sage files in PyCharm (dedicated file type, Sage sugar parsing, implicit sage.all namespace): the companion sage-ide-support plugin (PyCharm 2026.1+), which consumes the stubs installed here as its type-information data layer

Run all installation commands with Sage's Python interpreter. A normal Windows Python installation cannot inspect a Sage environment installed in WSL.

The Chinese curated docs, the finite-field element-class return annotations, and the downgrade protection ship since 0.7.0; 0.8.0 adds the opt-in machine-translation layer (a bundled shared cache plus the translate-docs command below).

Prefer English docs? Run sage-pycharm-stubgen --doc-language en --install: the curated Chinese docstrings are skipped (the original English source docs stay) while every language-neutral type annotation is still applied.

Install

Inside the Sage environment:

conda activate sage
python -m pip install sage-pycharm-stubgen
sage-pycharm-stubgen --install

To install the current development version directly from GitHub instead, use:

python -m pip install "git+https://github.com/starnotes-xj/sage-pycharm-stubgen.git"

--install performs generation, strict validation, and installation in one command. The generated build tree is stored at <current-environment>/sage_typings, while the stubs used by the IDE are placed beside the installed Sage modules, for example:

<environment>/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages/sage/all.pyi
<environment>/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages/sage/misc/persist.pyi

The tool never overwrites .py, .pyx, or compiled extension files. It also does not overwrite pre-existing .pyi files that it does not own.

Configure PyCharm

1. Select the same WSL/Conda Python interpreter used above.
2. Remove any manually added sage_typings Sources Root from the project.
3. Refresh the interpreter package list.
4. If an old error remains cached, use File → Invalidate Caches / Restart.

The stubs then apply to every project using that interpreter. No custom PyCharm plugin is needed for .py files. For first-class .sage files (own file type, sugar-aware parsing, implicit sage.all namespace, typed F.<a> = GF(2^8) completion), install the companion sage-ide-support plugin; alternatively, see Preparsing Sage syntax for converting Sage sugar to plain Python.

Press Ctrl+Q on any Sage function name to see its description, return type, and examples (Chinese docs for 700+ common APIs); after a first install or upgrade, use File → Invalidate Caches / Restart if the docs do not show up.

Configure VS Code

1. Install the official WSL, Python, and Pylance extensions.
2. Open the project in a WSL window, for example by running code . in Ubuntu.
3. Select the same Sage Python interpreter used to install the stubs.
4. Open a Python file and request completion after x. in the example above.

The generated stubs have been verified with Pyright 1.1.411: it resolves x as IntegerMod_abstract, exposes the sqrt signature, and resolves sage.misc.persist.load without errors. VS Code users do not need to install the Pyright CLI separately when using Pylance.

Associating *.sage with the Python language can provide ordinary Python API completion, but Pylance does not understand Sage preparser-only syntax such as R.<x> = PolynomialRing(...). Convert such files with the preparse command first.

Update and uninstall

Run the same command after upgrading SageMath:

sage-pycharm-stubgen --install

Remove only the stubs owned by this tool:

sage-pycharm-stubgen --uninstall

If the environment already contains stale third-party .pyi files on the same paths (older stub generators leave them behind), the installer preserves them by default. Take them over explicitly with --install --overwrite-unowned; each replaced file is backed up as <name>.pyi.sps-bak and restored by --uninstall.

The install manifest records the generator version. Running --install with an older tool version than the one that produced the current stubs is refused — overwriting would silently lose the newer tool's documentation enrichment (curated Chinese docs and return annotations). Upgrade the tool (pip install -U sage-pycharm-stubgen) or pass --force to bypass. The curated Chinese doc table is also shipped next to the installed stubs (.sage-pycharm-stubgen-curated-docs.json) as an audit/recovery artifact.

Preparsing Sage syntax

Sage's preparser sugar (R.<x> = GF(2)[], F.<a> = GF(2^8, ...), ^ as power, e^(-1)) is only expanded in .sage files. A .py file using that syntax is invalid Python, so PyCharm cannot parse it at all, let alone index it. Convert a file to plain Python:

sage-pycharm-stubgen preparse test.py

The file is rewritten in place (atomically, keeping a test.py.preparse-backup copy of the original). The conversion expands generator declarations, powers, and numeric literals exactly as Sage itself would, and inserts from sage.all import * when Sage symbols are used without it — .py files do not get the implicit namespace injection that .sage files receive from the Sage command.

Combined with the generated stubs, static analysis then resolves the converted file end to end: F is typed as FiniteField, a and x come from _first_ngens, and from_integer, to_integer, polynomial, characteristic, and friends all complete. Verified with Pyright: zero errors on a converted AES finite-field exercise.

Options:

• --check — only report files that still need conversion; exit code 1 if any do (useful in scripts and CI).
• --output DIR — write converted copies into DIR instead of rewriting in place.
• --no-backup — do not keep a .preparse-backup copy.

Several files can be converted at once:

sage-pycharm-stubgen preparse a.py b.py c.py

Documentation enrichment

PyCharm's Quick Documentation reads the docstring body of a stub function, so the generator repairs and fills docstrings during generation from three sources, in priority order:

1. Curated docs (supplemental_docs.py) -- Chinese explanations with verified sage: examples and precise return annotations for 700+ CTF-critical APIs (finite fields, polynomial rings, modular arithmetic, elliptic curves, matrices, number-theory tools), every example executed against the installed Sage before being written. Regenerate the file with python tools/build_supplemental_docs.py <research-output.json> and merge new research with python tools/merge_supplemental_docs.py <research-output.json>.
2. Source docstrings -- extracted from the installed .pyx sources, including cpdef/cdef functions whose Cython return types upgrade -> Any where the stub's imports allow it.
3. Runtime docstrings -- the live Sage environment is imported module by module and inspect.getdoc fills what the sources leave out (inherited and decorator-built docstrings). This import sweep takes minutes; disable it with --no-runtime-docs.

The pass also moves docstrings that stubgen-pyx emits as standalone string statements after def ...: ... into the function body, which is the only placement PyCharm's stub indexer associates with the function.

Machine-translating the remaining docs (opt-in)

The curated layer covers the CTF-critical APIs; everything else keeps its English source docstring. To additionally translate all remaining English docstrings into Chinese:

sage-pycharm-stubgen translate-docs --apply-only

This is an explicit, opt-in command — it never runs automatically during --install, so English-only users are unaffected unless they invoke it. It applies every translation from two sources, merged together:

1. the shared cache shipped inside the package (the accumulated batch translation of the whole Sage API, ~12k docstrings — instant, no network needed; disable with --no-bundled), and
2. your own persistent cache (~/.sage-pycharm-stubgen/translations.json), which wins over the shipped one where they overlap.

Docstrings missing from both caches can be translated on demand with a live backend (--backend google, or --backend baidu with BAIDU_APPID/BAIDU_API_KEY env vars; --workers N parallelizes the Baidu LLM requests). Runs are resumable after interruptions, and re-applying the cache is instant:

sage-pycharm-stubgen translate-docs
sage-pycharm-stubgen translate-docs --apply-only

Machine translations are readable but unverified; the curated entries remain the only layer whose examples are executed against Sage.

Advanced generation

To generate a small test subset without installing it:

sage-pycharm-stubgen \
  --pattern 'rings/finite_rings/integer_mod.pyx' \
  --output ./sage_typings_test

The output contains a generation-report.json and the generated sage/ stub tree. Factory inference details are written to sage/factory-inference.json.

Limitations

No static stub generator can promise one perfectly precise type for every possible dynamic Python call. A function may choose its return type from argument values, plugins, files, network state, or classes created at runtime. This tool instead requires every detected factory to have an importable static return type during strict installation. Factories with several implementations use a common importable base class whose members are valid for the observed implementations.

Companion projects

• sage-ide-support — a PyCharm plugin giving .sage files first-class support: a dedicated "Sage" file type (Python dialect), transparent Sage generator-sugar parsing (F.<a> = GF(2^8, ...)), the runtime-injected sage.all namespace for static analysis, run configurations (native/WSL/Docker) and live templates. It consumes the .pyi stubs generated and installed by this tool; all type information and curated documentation live here, in the stub data layer.
• JetBrains/intellij-community PR #3614 — a generic typeInformationGenerator extension point that lets PyCharm discover, invoke and refresh this engine for Sage interpreters (local/WSL/Docker).
• sagemath/sage PR #42670 and #42672 — upstream Sage annotations for the GF/Zmod factories and the FiniteField element-returning methods; once merged, this engine prefers those source-declared types over its runtime probing.

Development

python -m pip install -e .
python -m unittest discover -s tests -v
python -m compileall -q src tests

License

MIT