aiocoap -- The Python CoAP library

The aiocoap package is an implementation of CoAP, the Constrained Application Protocol.

It is written in Python 3 using its native asyncio methods to facilitate concurrent operations while maintaining an easy to use interface.

Usage

For how to use the aiocoap library, have a look at the guidedtour, or at the examples and tools provided.

A full reference is available in the API documentation.

All examples can be run directly from a source code copy. If you prefer to install it, the usual Python mechanisms apply (see installation).

Features / Standards

This library supports the following standards in full or partially:

• RFC7252 (CoAP): Supported for clients and servers. Multicast is supported on the server side, and partially for clients. DTLS is supported but experimental, and lacking some security properties. No caching is done inside the library.
• RFC7641 (Observe): Basic support for clients and servers. Reordering, re-registration, and active cancellation are missing.
• RFC7959 (Blockwise): Supported both for atomic and random access.
• RFC8323 (TCP, WebSockets): Supports CoAP over TCP, TLS, and WebSockets (both over HTTP and HTTPS). The TLS parts are server-certificate only; preshared, raw public keys and client certificates are not supported yet.
• RFC7967 (No-Response): Supported.
• RFC8132 (PATCH/FETCH): Types and codes known, FETCH observation supported.
• RFC9176: A standalone resource directory server is provided along with a library function to register at one. They lack support for groups and security considerations, and are generally rather simplistic.
• RFC8613 (OSCORE): Full support client-side; protected servers can be implemented based on it but are not automatic yet.
• draft-ietf-core-oscore-groupcomm-17 (Group OSCORE): Supported for both group and pairwise mode in groups that are fully known. (The lack of an implemented joining or persistence mechanism makes this impractical for anything but experimentation.)

If something described by one of the standards but not implemented, it is considered a bug; please file at the github issue tracker. (If it's not on the list or in the excluded items, file a wishlist item at the same location).

Dependencies

Basic aiocoap works out of the box on Python 3.7 or newer (also works on PyPy3). For full support (DTLS, OSCORE and link-format handling) follow the installation instructions as these require additional libraries.

aiocoap provides different network backends for different platforms. The most featureful backend is available for Linux, but most operations work on BSDs, Windows and macOS as well. See the FAQ for more details.

If your library depends on aiocoap, it should pick the required extras (as per installation) and declare a dependency like aiocoap[linkheader,oscore] >= 0.4b2.

Development

aiocoap tries to stay close to PEP8 recommendations and general best practice, and should thus be easy to contribute to.

Bugs (ranging from "design goal" and "wishlist" to typos) are currently tracked in the github issue tracker. Pull requests are welcome there; if you start working on larger changes, please coordinate on the issue tracker.

Documentation is built using sphinx with ./setup.py build_sphinx; hacks used there are described in ./doc/README.doc.

Unit tests are implemented in the ./tests/ directory and easiest run using tox (but also available through python3 -m unittest to test the local environment); complete test coverage is aimed for, but not yet complete (and might never be, as the error handling for pathological network partners is hard to trigger with a library designed not to misbehave). The tests are regularly run at the CI suite at gitlab, from where coverage reports are available.

Relevant URLs

• https://github.com/chrysn/aiocoap

  This is where the latest source code can be found, and bugs can be reported. Generally, this serves as the project web site.

• http://aiocoap.readthedocs.org/

  Online documentation built from the sources.

• http://coap.technology/

  Further general information on CoAP, the standard documents involved, and other implementations and tools available.

Licensing

aiocoap is published under the MIT License, and follows the best practice of reuse.software. Files in aiocoap/util/vendored/ may have different (but compatible and OSI approved) licenses.

When using aiocoap for a publication, please cite it according to the output of ./setup.py cite [--bibtex].

Copyright Christian Amsüss and the aiocoap contributors.

aiocoap was originally based on txThings by Maciej Wasilak. The full list of aiocoap contributors can be obtained from the version control history.