shard-inference 0.5.1

Python SDK for the Shard distributed inference network

Shard Python SDK

Python client for the Shard distributed inference network.

Installation

pip install shard-inference

Or install from source:

cd sdk/python
pip install -e .

Quick Start

from shard import Shard

# Connect to local daemon (default: http://localhost:9091)
client = Shard()

# Non-streaming request
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="shard-hybrid",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain quantum computing simply."}]
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

# Streaming request
stream = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="shard-hybrid",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Count to 5"}],
    stream=True
)
for chunk in stream:
    if chunk.choices[0].delta.content:
        print(chunk.choices[0].delta.content, end="", flush=True)

client.close()

OpenAI-Compatible Drop-In

The SDK is designed to be a drop-in replacement for the OpenAI client:

# Instead of:
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url="http://localhost:9091/v1", api_key="...")

# You can use:
from shard import Shard
client = Shard()  # Defaults to http://localhost:9091

All standard OpenAI parameters are supported:

• messages - Chat messages
• model - Model identifier
• temperature - Sampling temperature (0.0-2.0)
• max_tokens - Maximum tokens to generate
• top_p - Nucleus sampling parameter
• stream - Enable streaming responses

Async Usage

import asyncio
from shard import AsyncShard

async def main():
    async with AsyncShard() as client:
        response = await client.chat.completions.create(
            model="shard-hybrid",
            messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]
        )
        print(response.choices[0].message.content)

asyncio.run(main())

API Key & Authentication

# With API key
client = Shard(api_key="sk-your-key-here")

# Connect to remote server
client = Shard(base_url="https://your-shard-server.com", api_key="sk-...")

Private Mesh Routing

For sensitive requests that should bypass public bootstrap peers:

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="shard-hybrid",
    messages=[...],
    sensitive=True  # Routes via X-Shard-Route: private
)

Configuration

client = Shard(
    api_key="sk-...",           # API key (optional)
    base_url="http://localhost:9091",  # Daemon URL
    timeout=30.0,               # Request timeout (seconds)
    max_retries=3,              # Retry attempts on failure
)

Exceptions

The SDK provides typed exceptions:

• ShardError - Base exception
• ShardAPIError - API errors (4xx/5xx responses)
• ShardAuthError - Authentication failures (401)
• ShardTimeoutError - Request timeouts
• ShardConnectionError - Connection failures

from shard import Shard, ShardAPIError

try:
    client = Shard()
    response = client.chat.completions.create(messages=[...])
except ShardAPIError as e:
    print(f"API Error: {e.status_code} - {e.response_body}")
except ShardTimeoutError:
    print("Request timed out")

Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• httpx >= 0.25.0
• pydantic >= 2.0

For async support:

• aiohttp >= 3.9.0

License

MIT