Like builtins, but boltons. 250+ constructs, recipes, and snippets which extend (and rely on nothing but) the Python standard library. Nothing like Michael
Like builtins, but boltons. 250+ constructs, recipes, and snippets which extend (and rely on nothing but) the Python standard library. Nothing like Michael
boltons should be builtins.
Boltons is a set of over 230 BSD-licensed, pure-Python utilities in the same spirit as — and yet conspicuously missing from — the standard library, including:
Full and extensive docs are available on Read The Docs. See what's new by checking the CHANGELOG.
Boltons is tested against Python 3.7-3.14, as well as PyPy3.
Boltons can be added to a project in a few ways. There's the obvious one:
pip install boltons
On macOS, it can also be installed via MacPorts:
sudo port install py-boltons
Then, thanks to PyPI, dozens of boltons are just an import away:
from boltons.cacheutils import LRU
my_cache = LRU()
However, due to the nature of utilities, application developers might want to consider other options, including vendorization of individual modules into a project. Boltons is pure-Python and has no dependencies. If the whole project is too big, each module is independent, and can be copied directly into a project. See the Integration section of the docs for more details.
The majority of boltons strive to be "good enough" for a wide range of
basic uses, leaving advanced use cases to Python's myriad specialized
3rd-party libraries. In many cases the respective boltons module
will describe 3rd-party alternatives worth investigating when use
cases outgrow boltons. If you've found a natural "next-step"
library worth mentioning, see the next section!
Found something missing in the standard library that should be in
boltons? Found something missing in boltons? First, take a
moment to read the very brief architecture statement
to make sure the functionality would be a good fit. It covers the
design philosophy, what belongs in boltons, and how modules are
organized.
Then, if you are very motivated, submit a Pull Request. Otherwise, submit a short feature request on the Issues page, and we will figure something out.
Install uv, then set up a dev environment:
uv venv && uv pip install -e .
Run the test suite (includes doctests):
uvx --with tox-uv tox -e py314
Run all environments in parallel:
uvx --with tox-uv tox -p auto
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