---
id: firebird-base
version: "2.0.3"
license: MIT License =========== Copyright (c) 2019 The Firebird Project (www.firebirdsql.org) Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated… (full text in the JSON record)
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# firebird-base — Firebird base modules for Python

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 235.4K/mo

## What it is and what it does

firebird-base is a collection of utility modules designed for Python 3 applications, originally developed for the Firebird Project but with general applicability. It provides foundational building blocks including custom exception and singleton classes, enhanced collection types that support expression-based filtering and querying, symmetric string-to-type conversion, a structured configuration framework with validation and protobuf message exchange, memory buffer management, hook and callback systems, context-aware logging, and trace/audit decorators for method calls.

The package is organized into focused modules—types, collections, strconv, config, buffer, hooks, logging, trace, protobuf, and signal—each addressing a specific cross-cutting concern. Developers typically use it as a dependency in larger applications or libraries that need unified configuration handling, structured logging, or expression-based data manipulation without reaching for heavier frameworks. It depends only on protobuf at runtime.

Use it for:

- Build a configuration framework for a complex application with validation, file persistence, and inter-process protobuf serialization.
- Implement expression-based filtering and reporting on in-memory data structures without writing custom query logic.
- Add context-aware logging and method-level tracing to an existing application for debugging and audit trails.
- Create a callback or signal/slot system for decoupled event handling between application components.
- Register and manage Google Protocol Buffer message definitions centrally across multiple modules.

## Worth the install?

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

Provides a collection of utility modules for Python applications, including data types, collections with expression-based filtering, configuration management, logging, protobuf support, and callback systems.

Yes. firebird-base is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, uses a permissive MIT license, and offers low install friction. It is worth installing if your application needs one or more of its utility modules (configuration, logging, collections, callbacks, or protobuf support). If you only need a single feature, evaluate whether the dependency is justified for your use case.

## Install

pip install firebird-base
uv add firebird-base
poetry add firebird-base

## Installing firebird-base

Before you install: Low install friction with a single runtime dependency (protobuf). Actively maintained with recent release; supports Python 3.11, 3.12, and 3.13.

License in practice: MIT license permits unrestricted use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions—suitable for both open-source and commercial projects.

Quickstart:

pip install firebird-base

from firebird.base.types import Error, Singleton
from firebird.base.collections import DataList

# Use Error as base for application exceptions
class MyError(Error):
    pass

# Use DataList for expression-based filtering
items = DataList([{'name': 'a', 'value': 1}, {'name': 'b', 'value': 2}])
result = items.find("item.value > 1")

Requires Python 3.11 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the protobuf registry supports all common protobuf versions and message types without additional configuration.
- Performance characteristics of expression-based filtering on large collections compared to standard Python operations.
- Compatibility of the configuration framework with non-standard config file formats beyond configparser.

## Package facts

- License: MIT License =========== Copyright (c) 2019 The Firebird Project (www.firebirdsql.org) Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated… (full text in the JSON record) (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 235.4K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

python utility modules, configuration framework, data collections filtering, protobuf registry, context-based logging, callback systems, firebird development tools, configuration-framework, protobuf-utilities, logging-tracing

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