coffea
Basic tools and wrappers for enabling not-too-alien syntax when running columnar Collider HEP analysis.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you are doing high-energy physics analysis with ROOT files and want columnar, vectorized workflows with built-in scaling. The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and carries a permissive license. The 25 dependencies are standard for scientific Python and will not be unusual in a physics environment. The Beta status and 'prototype' framing suggest the API may evolve, but active maintenance and recent releases indicate serious ongoing development.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.10 or later.
- ROOT file access requires uproot and awkward-array, which are installed as dependencies.
- Low friction installation with a pure-wheel distribution.
License · maintenance · safety
BSD-3-Clause (permissive) — BSD-3-Clause permissive license allows commercial and private use with attribution. No licensing restrictions on derivative works or distribution.
last release 2026-07-06 (39 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-14 · 145 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 657,901 downloads/mo, #5,474 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install coffea
import coffea
from coffea.nanoevents import NanoEventsFactory
events = NanoEventsFactory.from_root("file.root").events()- Specific performance characteristics when scaling across different resource types (laptop to cluster to supercomputer)
- Current stability guarantees given the 'Beta' development status and 'prototype' designation in documentation
- Compatibility with specific ROOT file formats and versions beyond the basic uproot support
What it is and what it does
coffea is a Python framework for columnar analysis of high-energy physics data, designed to make working with ROOT files and complex event structures feel natural to scientists familiar with NumPy and Pandas. It wraps uproot for transparent ROOT file access and awkward-array for handling jagged and nested data structures common in particle physics, allowing analysts to write physics logic in a vectorized, array-oriented style rather than event-by-event loops.
The package also provides histogramming, plotting, and lookup-table utilities needed for physics analysis workflows, plus built-in support for horizontal scaling across diverse compute resources—from a laptop to multi-core servers, clusters, and supercomputers—without requiring changes to analysis code. This is achieved through integration with modern distributed computing frameworks like Dask and Parsl, making it possible to prototype locally and scale to production without rewriting.
Use it for
- Process and analyze ROOT files from particle detector experiments using columnar operations and NumPy-like syntax.
- Build scalable physics analysis pipelines that run unchanged on a laptop, multi-core server, or computing cluster.
- Apply corrections and transformations to Monte Carlo simulation data to match real experimental measurements.
- Manipulate jagged and nested event structures (e.g., variable-length particle lists per event) efficiently.
- Prototype analysis logic locally and then scale horizontally to process large datasets without code changes.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you are doing high-energy physics analysis with ROOT files and want columnar, vectorized workflows with built-in scaling.
The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and carries a permissive license. The 25 dependencies are standard for scientific Python and will not be unusual in a physics environment. The Beta status and 'prototype' framing suggest the API may evolve, but active maintenance and recent releases indicate serious ongoing development.
Install
coffea on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction installation with a pure-wheel distribution. Active maintenance with a recent release 39 days ago and commits through August 2026. The package carries 25 runtime dependencies including heavy scientific stacks (NumPy, SciPy, Numba, Pandas, PyArrow), which are standard for physics analysis but will add meaningful install time.
Requires Python 3.10 or later. ROOT file access requires uproot and awkward-array, which are installed as dependencies.
License in practice
BSD-3-Clause permissive license allows commercial and private use with attribution. No licensing restrictions on derivative works or distribution.
Quickstart
pip install coffea
import coffea
from coffea.nanoevents import NanoEventsFactory
events = NanoEventsFactory.from_root("file.root").events()Verify before relying
- Specific performance characteristics when scaling across different resource types (laptop to cluster to supercomputer)
- Current stability guarantees given the 'Beta' development status and 'prototype' designation in documentation
- Compatibility with specific ROOT file formats and versions beyond the basic uproot support
Package facts
| License | BSD-3-Clause permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.10 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 25 packagesaiohttpawkwardcachetoolscloudpicklecorrectionlibfsspechistipywidgetslokylz4matplotlibmplhepnumbanumpypackagingpandaspyarrowpydanticrequestsrichscipytomltqdmuprootvector |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 39 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 657,901 / month, #5,474 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 4 - BetaIntended Audience :: DevelopersIntended Audience :: Information TechnologyIntended Audience :: Science/ResearchLicense :: OSI Approved :: BSD LicenseOperating System :: MacOSOperating System :: Microsoft :: WindowsOperating System :: POSIXOperating System :: UnixProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: OnlyProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Topic :: Scientific/EngineeringTopic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Information AnalysisTopic :: Scientific/Engineering :: MathematicsTopic :: Scientific/Engineering :: PhysicsTopic :: Software DevelopmentTopic :: Utilities |
Evidence: coffea-2026.7.0-py3-none-any.whl
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See also correctionlib · fastjet · uproot3-methods · uproot3 · uproot · hepconvert · mplhep · rucio-clients · cupy-cuda12x · vector