desert
Deserialize to objects while staying DRY
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you're working with dataclasses or attrs and need marshmallow serialization without schema duplication—the low install friction and permissive license make it easy to try. However, proceed with caution: the package is abandoned and no longer maintained, so you should verify it works with your current dependency versions and be prepared to fork or migrate if issues arise.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Low install friction with only 4 runtime dependencies (marshmallow, attrs, typing-inspect, dataclasses).
- However, the package is abandoned—last commit was 2023-04-27 and no releases since 2022-09-23, so maintenance is no longer active.
License · maintenance · safety
permissive license (permissive) — Licensed under MIT (permissive), so you can use it freely in commercial and private projects without restriction.
last release 2022-09-23 (1421 days) · last repo commit 2023-04-27 · 161 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 130,603 downloads/mo, #11,636 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install desert
from dataclasses import dataclass
import desert
@dataclass
class Person:
name: str
age: int
schema = desert.schema(Person)
data = {'name': 'Alice', 'age': 21}
person = schema.load(data)- Whether the package still works reliably with current versions of marshmallow and attrs despite being abandoned
- Whether string annotations and forward references limitation affects your use case
What it is and what it does
Desert bridges dataclasses and attrs with marshmallow by automatically generating serialization schemas from your class definitions. Instead of writing both a dataclass and a separate marshmallow schema, you define your data structure once and Desert creates the schema for you. It handles nested objects, type-variant generics (Sequence, Mapping, etc.), and optional fields, reducing boilerplate while keeping your code DRY.
The package wraps marshmallow under the hood, so you get all of marshmallow's validation and serialization power without duplicating field definitions. It supports both dataclasses and attrs classes, making it useful for projects that use either or both. However, the project is no longer maintained—the last commit was in 2023 and no updates have been released since 2022, so you should consider whether you're comfortable adopting abandoned software.
Use it for
- Automatically generate marshmallow schemas for dataclass-based APIs to avoid writing duplicate field definitions
- Deserialize JSON into nested dataclass instances with automatic type validation and conversion
- Use type-variant generics (Sequence, Mapping) in dataclasses while still getting proper serialization support
- Reduce boilerplate when building data pipelines that need both type safety and serialization
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you're working with dataclasses or attrs and need marshmallow serialization without schema duplication—the low install friction and permissive license make it easy to try.
However, proceed with caution: the package is abandoned and no longer maintained, so you should verify it works with your current dependency versions and be prepared to fork or migrate if issues arise.
Install
desert on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction with only 4 runtime dependencies (marshmallow, attrs, typing-inspect, dataclasses). However, the package is abandoned—last commit was 2023-04-27 and no releases since 2022-09-23, so maintenance is no longer active.
License in practice
Licensed under MIT (permissive), so you can use it freely in commercial and private projects without restriction.
Quickstart
pip install desert
from dataclasses import dataclass
import desert
@dataclass
class Person:
name: str
age: int
schema = desert.schema(Person)
data = {'name': 'Alice', 'age': 21}
person = schema.load(data)Verify before relying
- Whether the package still works reliably with current versions of marshmallow and attrs despite being abandoned
- Whether string annotations and forward references limitation affects your use case
Package facts
| License | permissive license permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.6 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 4 packagesmarshmallowattrstyping-inspectdataclasses |
| Maintenance | Abandoned 1,421 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 130,603 / month, #11,636 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 3 - AlphaIntended Audience :: DevelopersLicense :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseOperating System :: Microsoft :: WindowsOperating System :: POSIXOperating System :: UnixProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9Programming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: CPythonProgramming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: PyPyTopic :: Utilities |
Evidence: desert-2022.9.22-py3-none-any.whl
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See also dataclasses-jsonschema · djangorestframework-dataclasses · warchant_dc_schema · attrs · hologram · tinsel · py-avro-schema · dataclasses-avroschema · dataclasses-json · renew