---
id: adlfs
version: "2026.8.0"
license: BSD
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# adlfs — Access Azure Blobs and Data Lake Storage (ADLS) Gen2 with fsspec and dask

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 15.9M/mo

## What it is and what it does

adlfs implements filesystem-like access to Azure Blob Storage and Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 through fsspec, allowing you to interact with cloud storage using familiar file operations (read, write, list) via the `abfs://` and `az://` protocols. The package wraps the official Azure Blob Storage Python SDK and registers itself in fsspec's known_implementations, so tools that support fsspec can transparently access Azure storage.

Authentication is flexible: the package can use DefaultAzureCredential for automatic discovery, or accept explicit credentials via account keys, connection strings, SAS tokens, or service principals passed through storage_options. Write operations create BlockBlobs by default; AppendBlobs are available via `mode="ab"`. The package supports multiple URI formats and can read from public containers when provided with an account name.

Use it for:

- Read CSV or Parquet files from Azure storage using fsspec-compatible tools without downloading to local disk.
- Access public Azure datasets by specifying the account name and using anonymous credentials.
- Integrate Azure Blob Storage into ETL pipelines that use fsspec, treating cloud storage as a mounted filesystem.
- Write processed data back to Azure storage without staging to local disk.
- Authenticate to Azure storage using service principals or managed identities in automated environments.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Provides a filesystem interface to Azure Blob Storage and Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, enabling file-like access through fsspec.

Yes. The package is actively maintained with no known vulnerabilities, low install friction, and a permissive BSD license. It solves a real problem—fsspec-compatible access to Azure storage—and integrates cleanly with the Azure Python SDK ecosystem. Install if you need to read from or write to Azure Blob Storage or Data Lake Storage Gen2 through fsspec.

## Install

pip install adlfs
uv add adlfs
poetry add adlfs

## Installing adlfs

Before you install: Low friction install with a pure-Python wheel. Actively maintained with a recent release 3 days old. Depends on four Azure SDK packages and fsspec, all stable and widely used.

License in practice: BSD license is permissive; you can use, modify, and distribute this package with minimal restrictions, suitable for both open-source and commercial projects.

Quickstart:

pip install adlfs

import fsspec

storage_options = {'account_name': 'myaccount', 'account_key': 'mykey'}
fs = fsspec.filesystem('abfs', **storage_options)
files = fs.ls('container/folder')

Requires Python >=3.10. Azure credentials (account name/key, connection string, or service principal) must be provided or discoverable via DefaultAzureCredential.

Verify before relying:

- Performance characteristics when reading or writing large files or many small files to Azure storage.
- Whether append operations on AppendBlobs work reliably with hierarchical namespaces disabled.
- Compatibility with Dask beyond the documented read_csv and read_parquet examples.

## Package facts

- License: BSD (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 15.9M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

azure blob storage filesystem, azure data lake gen2 fsspec, abfs protocol python, azure cloud file access, az:// protocol handler, azure storage fsspec, adls gen2 filesystem, azure-cloud, cloud-storage, fsspec-plugin

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