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python-trio/trio

7,261PythonAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

Trio is a Python library for running multiple tasks at once, like fetching many web pages simultaneously, using a simpler and safer approach to async programming than Python's built-in asyncio.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Trio))
    What it does
      Async concurrency
      Structured task lifetimes
      Network IO
    Core concept
      Nurseries
      Task lifecycle rules
      Clean error handling
    Use cases
      Web scrapers
      TCP servers
      Subprocess management
    Platform support
      Linux macOS Windows
      Python 3.10 and newer
      Pure Python install
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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Build a web scraper that fetches dozens of pages simultaneously without waiting for each one to finish before starting the next.

USE CASE 2

Write a TCP server that handles many simultaneous client connections without spawning a thread per connection.

USE CASE 3

Replace asyncio in an existing Python project to get cleaner task lifecycle management and easier error propagation.

Tech stack

Python

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 30min
Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, you may choose between the MIT or Apache 2 license.

In plain English

Trio is a Python library for writing programs that handle multiple tasks at the same time, specifically when those tasks involve waiting for things like network responses, file reads, or other input and output operations. Python has a built-in system for this kind of programming called asyncio, but Trio is a separate, independent alternative that was designed with a different philosophy: make it as simple and hard to misuse as possible. The core idea behind Trio is something called structured concurrency. In most async systems, you can start tasks running in the background and they can outlive the code that created them, which makes it difficult to reason about when things finish or what happens if something goes wrong. Trio enforces a rule that tasks must finish before the code that launched them exits. This constraint, similar to how a normal function call works, makes programs much easier to follow and debug. The README links to a longer article explaining the reasoning if you want the deeper background. In practical terms, Trio is useful for writing web scrapers that fetch many pages at once, servers that handle many simultaneous connections, or any program that would otherwise spend most of its time waiting. It supports working with sockets, subprocesses, and similar low-level operations. The library runs on Python 3.10 and newer on Linux, macOS, Windows, and FreeBSD. Trio is described as mature and production-ready. Breaking changes are rare, and the existing features are fully documented. Installation is straightforward because all dependencies are written in pure Python except for one Windows-specific component that comes as a pre-built package, meaning you do not need a C compiler. The project is open source under your choice of MIT or Apache 2 licenses. A beginner-friendly tutorial is available in the documentation for people with no prior experience writing async Python code.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Write a Trio async program that fetches 20 URLs concurrently using a nursery and prints the HTTP status code returned for each URL.
Prompt 2
How do I structure a Trio TCP server so that each client connection runs in its own task and no task outlives the server nursery?
Prompt 3
Show me how to migrate this asyncio-based script to use Trio instead, preserving the same behavior but using structured concurrency with nurseries.
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