Autobahn|Python

WebSocket & WAMP for Python on Twisted and asyncio.

Quick Links: Source Code - Documentation - WebSocket Examples - WAMP Examples Community: Forum - StackOverflow - Twitter - IRC #autobahn/chat.freenode.net Companion Projects: Autobahn|JS - Autobahn|Cpp - Autobahn|Testsuite - Crossbar.io - WAMP

Introduction

Autobahn|Python is a subproject of Autobahn and provides open-source implementations of

• The WebSocket Protocol
• The Web Application Messaging Protocol (WAMP)

for Python 3.7+ and running on Twisted and asyncio.

You can use Autobahn|Python to create clients and servers in Python speaking just plain WebSocket or WAMP.

WebSocket allows bidirectional real-time messaging on the Web and beyond, while WAMP adds real-time application communication on top of WebSocket.

WAMP provides asynchronous Remote Procedure Calls and Publish & Subscribe for applications in one protocol running over WebSocket. WAMP is a routed protocol, so you need a WAMP Router to connect your Autobahn|Python based clients. We provide Crossbar.io, but there are other options as well.

Note

Autobahn|Python up to version v19.11.2 supported Python 2 and 3.4+, and up to version v20.7.1 supported Python 3.5+, and up to version v21.2.1 supported Python 3.6+.

Features

• framework for WebSocket and WAMP clients and servers
• runs on CPython and PyPy <https://pypy.org/>
• runs under Twisted and asyncio - implements WebSocket RFC6455 and Draft Hybi-10+
• implements WebSocket compression
• implements WAMP, the Web Application Messaging Protocol
• high-performance, fully asynchronous implementation
• best-in-class standards conformance (100% strict passes with Autobahn Testsuite: Client Server)
• message-, frame- and streaming-APIs for WebSocket
• supports TLS (secure WebSocket) and proxies
• Open-source (MIT license)

AI Policy

IMPORTANT: A Note on Upcoming Policy Changes Regarding AI-Assisted Content

Up to and including release v25.6.1, this project contains no code or documentation generated with the assistance of AI tools. This version represents the final release under our historical contribution policy. Starting with future versions (after release v25.6.1), our contribution policy will change. Subsequent releases MAY contain code or documentation created with AI assistance.

We urge all users and contributors to review our AI Policy. This document details:

• The rules and warranties required for all future contributions.
• The potential intellectual property implications for the project and its users.

This policy was established following an open community discussion, which you can review on GitHub issue #1663.

We are providing this transparent notice to enable you to make an informed decision. If our new AI policy is incompatible with your own (or your organization's) development practices or risk tolerance, please take this into consideration when deciding whether to upgrade beyond version v25.6.1.

Show me some code

To give you a first impression, here are two examples. We have lot more in the repo.

WebSocket Echo Server

Here is a simple WebSocket Echo Server that will echo back any WebSocket message received:

from autobahn.twisted.websocket import WebSocketServerProtocol
# or: from autobahn.asyncio.websocket import WebSocketServerProtocol

class MyServerProtocol(WebSocketServerProtocol):

    def onConnect(self, request):
        print("Client connecting: {}".format(request.peer))

    def onOpen(self):
        print("WebSocket connection open.")

    def onMessage(self, payload, isBinary):
        if isBinary:
            print("Binary message received: {} bytes".format(len(payload)))
        else:
            print("Text message received: {}".format(payload.decode('utf8')))

        # echo back message verbatim
        self.sendMessage(payload, isBinary)

    def onClose(self, wasClean, code, reason):
        print("WebSocket connection closed: {}".format(reason))

To actually run above server protocol, you need some lines of boilerplate.

WAMP Application Component

Here is a WAMP Application Component that performs all four types of actions that WAMP provides:

1. subscribe to a topic
2. publish an event
3. register a procedure
4. call a procedure

from autobahn.twisted.wamp import ApplicationSession
# or: from autobahn.asyncio.wamp import ApplicationSession

class MyComponent(ApplicationSession):

    @inlineCallbacks
    def onJoin(self, details):

        # 1. subscribe to a topic so we receive events
        def onevent(msg):
            print("Got event: {}".format(msg))

        yield self.subscribe(onevent, 'com.myapp.hello')

        # 2. publish an event to a topic
        self.publish('com.myapp.hello', 'Hello, world!')

        # 3. register a procedure for remote calling
        def add2(x, y):
            return x + y

        self.register(add2, 'com.myapp.add2')

        # 4. call a remote procedure
        res = yield self.call('com.myapp.add2', 2, 3)
        print("Got result: {}".format(res))

Above code will work on Twisted and asyncio by changing a single line (the base class of MyComponent). To actually run above application component, you need some lines of boilerplate and a WAMP Router.

Packaging

The Autobahn|Python OSS project:

• build & publish binary wheels on GitHub Releases and PyPI
• plans to publish on pyx once that launches
• plans to support WheelNext once that launches (see also: https://lwn.net/Articles/1028299/, https://labs.quansight.org/blog/python-wheels-from-tags-to-variants)
• no longer bakes & publishes Docker images *
• no longer explicitly supports PyInstaller packaging

*: for commercial users, typedef int GmbH (Germany), original creator and active maintainer of Autobahn, Crossbar.io and WAMP provides production grade, optimized and supported Docker images based on RHEL 9 and Debian 12, including complete SBOM for both the base system and full Python application run-time environment based on CycloneDX v1.6 in JSON format and as a audit-level PDF/A document fulfilling strict cybersecurity requirements addressing e.g. EU CRA and BSI TR-03183.

Package Releases

Autobahn|Python provides comprehensive binary wheel coverage for all major platforms and Python implementations.

Generic

• Source distribution: autobahn-25.9.1.tar.gz
• Pure Python 3 wheel: autobahn-25.9.1-py3-none-any.whl

Note: The pure Python wheel cannot include NVX (Native Vector Extensions) optimizations and will fall back to pure Python implementations. This provides maximum compatibility but slower performance compared to platform-specific wheels with native CFFI extensions.

Linux

Available for x86_64 architecture with native CFFI extensions:

• autobahn-25.9.1-cp311-cp311-linux_x86_64.whl
• autobahn-25.9.1-cp312-cp312-linux_x86_64.whl
• autobahn-25.9.1-cp313-cp313-linux_x86_64.whl
• autobahn-25.9.1-cp314-cp314-linux_x86_64.whl
• autobahn-25.9.1-pp311-pypy311_pp73-linux_x86_64.whl

macOS

Available for Apple Silicon (ARM64) architecture:

• autobahn-25.9.1-cp312-cp312-macosx_15_0_arm64.whl
• autobahn-25.9.1-cp313-cp313-macosx_15_0_arm64.whl
• autobahn-25.9.1-cp314-cp314-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl
• autobahn-25.9.1-pp311-pypy311_pp73-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl

Windows

Available for x86_64 (AMD64) architecture:

• autobahn-25.9.1-cp311-cp311-win_amd64.whl
• autobahn-25.9.1-cp312-cp312-win_amd64.whl
• autobahn-25.9.1-cp313-cp313-win_amd64.whl
• autobahn-25.9.1-cp314-cp314-win_amd64.whl
• autobahn-25.9.1-pp311-pypy311_pp73-win_amd64.whl

All wheels include native CFFI extensions for optimal performance and are available from PyPI and GitHub Releases.

Extensions

Networking framework

Autobahn runs on both Twisted and asyncio. To select the respective netoworking framework, install flavor:

• asyncio: Install asyncio (when on Python 2, otherwise it's included in the standard library already) and asyncio support in Autobahn
• twisted: Install Twisted and Twisted support in Autobahn

WebSocket acceleration and compression

• accelerate: Install WebSocket acceleration - Only use on CPython - not on PyPy (which is faster natively)
• compress: Install (non-standard) WebSocket compressors bzip2 and snappy (standard deflate based WebSocket compression is already included in the base install)

Encryption and WAMP authentication

Autobahn supports running over TLS (for WebSocket and all WAMP transports) as well as WAMP-cryposign authentication.

To install use this flavor:

• encryption: Installs TLS and WAMP-cryptosign dependencies

Autobahn also supports WAMP-SCRAM authentication. To install:

• scram: Installs WAMP-SCRAM dependencies

Native vector extensions (NVX)

> This is NOT yet complete - ALPHA!

Autobahn contains NVX, a network accelerator library that provides SIMD accelerated native vector code for WebSocket (XOR masking) and UTF-8 validation.

NVX lives in namespace autobahn.nvx and currently requires a x86-86 CPU with at least SSE2 and makes use of SSE4.1 if available. The code is written using vector instrinsics, should compile with both GCC and Clang,and interfaces with Python using CFFI, and hence runs fast on PyPy.

WAMP Serializers

• serialization: To install additional WAMP serializers: CBOR, MessagePack, UBJSON and Flatbuffers

Above is for advanced uses. In general we recommend to use CBOR where you can, and JSON (from the standard library) otherwise.

To install Autobahn with all available serializers:

pip install autobahn[serializers]

or (development install)

pip install -e .[serializers]

Further, to speed up JSON on CPython using ujson, set the environment variable:

AUTOBAHN_USE_UJSON=1

Warning

Using ujson (on both CPython and PyPy) will break the ability of Autobahn to transport and translate binary application payloads in WAMP transparently. This ability depends on features of the regular JSON standard library module not available on ujson.