yeptris — YAML for Python at libleptris speed

An FFI-based (no C extension) YAML library over libyeptris — the YAML counterpart of libleptris. PyYAML-compatible semantics, one shared library, zero compilation at install.

Part of the yeptris program: the best (multiple dimensions) YAML/JSON parser/builder ever — conformance, performance, safety/hardening, API surfaces, transport correctness, and trust, held simultaneously, in C, Ruby, Rust, and JS. This binding carries the PyYAML-compatible surface plus CBOR, tracking every libyeptris release in lockstep. The achievement program lives in the engine's PLAN.md ("The best-ever program").

Install (development)

# the sibling C checkout: ~/src/leptris/yeptris
cmake -B build -S . -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DYEPTRIS_BUILD_SHARED=ON
cmake --build build

cd ~/src/leptris/yeptris-py
YEPTRIS_LIB_PATH=../yeptris/build/src/libyeptris.dylib python3 -m pytest

Without YEPTRIS_LIB_PATH the loader falls back to a vendored yeptris/_platform/<tag>/ copy, then to the sibling checkout's build directory. Any libyeptris.{so,dylib,dll} path works.

Usage

import yeptris
from yeptris import yaml  # PyYAML-compatible surface

yaml.safe_load("name: yeptris\nrating: 10\n")
# {'name': 'yeptris', 'rating': 10}

yaml.safe_load_all("--- 1\n--- two\n")   # lazy generator: [1, 'two']
yaml.safe_dump({"b": 2, "a": [1, "x"]})  # 'a:\n  - 1\n  - x\nb: 2\n'
yaml.safe_dump_all([{"a": 1}, {"b": 2}]) # 'a: 1\n---\nb: 2\n'

yeptris.load("k: v")        # the neutral surface
yeptris.dump({"k": [1, 2]})
yeptris.load_all("--- 1\n--- 2\n")  # every document, as a list
yeptris.dump_all([{"k": 1}, [2]])   # the '---'-separated stream

Typing follows PyYAML's SafeLoader (YAML 1.1 implicit typing): yes/no/on/off booleans, 0x/leading-0/0b/sexagesimal integers, dot-required floats, timestamps with offsets, merge keys, anchor identity. Every deliberate divergence is pinned by a test.

The multi-document stream face is PyYAML's law: load_all/ safe_load_all are lazy generators (nothing parses until iteration; a bad document raises there), empty documents yield None, a zero-document stream yields nothing, and safe_load answers the first document only — silently, the binding's documented divergence (PyYAML raises on multi-document input). One pinned divergence remains: the engine parses a stream in one bulk drain, so an invalid stream raises at the first iteration with no documents yielded (PyYAML's per-document parser yields the good prefix first).

Design

One parse, one bulk drain: the record array and string arena are read in two FFI calls, then a pure-Python walk over the unpacked records — the FFI tax is O(1) per document, never per event (the same seam yeptris-ruby rides). The 36-byte record layout is ABI-pinned in the C header and mirrored in _ffi.py.

Performance

python3 bench.py — same-process comparison against PyYAML (pure) and CSafeLoader/CDumper (libyaml C extensions):

• load: 28-39x PyYAML pure, 3.8-6.1x CSafeLoader
• dump: ~1.7x PyYAML pure, ~2x behind CDumper (which walks the tree entirely in C — a no-C-extension design's ceiling is the Python walk itself; the tree raises through ONE yeptris_document_build call)

Both directions are O(chunks) in FFI calls: loads drain records in two calls, dumps build through one flat entry array.

JSON (strict RFC 8259) — yeptris.json

yeptris.json.loads is json.loads-compatible (values, rejects, types, json.JSONDecodeError — including stdlib's default NaN/ Infinity constant quirk) with two engines behind one contract:

• native — the opt-in extension ext/yeptris_native.c: a fused scan-kernel descent over libyeptris (the same shape as the Ruby binding's materializer), with a 1024-slot interned-free key cache. Build it with YEPTRIS_LIB_PATH + YEPTRIS_SRC set (python3 setup.py build_ext --inplace); CI builds and gates it.
• strict-ffi — the default pure path: yeptris_parse_json is the validator gate, then the columnar value walk converts under JSON rules. No C extension, correct everywhere.

benchmark/json_profile.py is the referee (order-alternating interleave vs the C scanner): the native engine runs 0.67-0.87x json.loads mean (83-85% head-to-head) on the 144 KB reference corpus; shape decomposition: int arrays 0.63x, float arrays 0.77x, long strings 0.85x, unique-key maps 0.95x. The previous pure walk was ~15x BEHIND — the fused materializer is the entire gap.

Installing the native JSON engine (platform wheels)

pip install yeptris on macOS (arm64) and manylinux (x86_64) installs platform wheels that vendor libyeptris and the native JSON materializer (abi3 — one wheel per platform serves CPython 3.9+): zero compiler, zero env vars, yeptris.json.engine() is native out of the box. Every wheel is release-smoked in a clean venv before publish. Other platforms install the pure package (the strict-ffi JSON engine + YAML via libyeptris through the YEPTRIS_LIB_PATH ladder); building the extension from source is YEPTRIS_LIB_PATH=... YEPTRIS_SRC=... python3 setup.py build_ext --inplace.