---
id: ibm-cloud-sdk-core
version: "3.26.0"
license: unclear
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# ibm-cloud-sdk-core — Core library used by SDKs for IBM Cloud Services

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 7.2M/mo

## What it is and what it does

IBM Cloud SDK Core is the foundation library for Python SDKs generated by IBM's OpenAPI SDK Generator. It handles the plumbing that generated service clients need: authentication (Basic, Bearer Token, IAM with apikey or assume grant types, Container, VPC Instance, Cloud Pak for Data), HTTP request/response lifecycle management via requests and urllib3, and service configuration. The library is not meant to be used standalone but rather as a dependency of generated IBM Cloud service SDKs.

It provides a logging facility using Python's built-in logging module, with a dedicated logger named `ibm-cloud-sdk-core` that can emit debug-level HTTP request and response details. The package supports modern Python versions (3.10 through 3.14) and is in production/stable status, with active maintenance and no known security vulnerabilities.

Use it for:

- Authenticate to IBM Cloud services using IAM API keys or service credentials in generated Python SDKs.
- Configure and manage HTTP connections to IBM Cloud APIs with automatic token refresh and retry logic.
- Enable detailed debug logging of authentication flows and HTTP traffic for troubleshooting SDK integrations.
- Support multiple authentication mechanisms (Container, VPC, Cloud Pak) without modifying generated service code.
- Provide a consistent base for all IBM Cloud Python SDKs to ensure uniform behavior across services.

## Worth the install?

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

Provides core authentication, HTTP request handling, and service configuration infrastructure for IBM Cloud SDKs generated by the OpenAPI SDK Generator.

Yes, if you are using an IBM Cloud Python SDK generated by the OpenAPI SDK Generator—it is a required dependency. Do not install directly unless you are building or extending such an SDK. The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and carries a permissive license.

## Install

pip install ibm-cloud-sdk-core
uv add ibm-cloud-sdk-core
poetry add ibm-cloud-sdk-core

## Installing ibm-cloud-sdk-core

Before you install: Low friction install with four lightweight runtime dependencies. Actively maintained with a recent release (29 days old) and ongoing repository activity.

License in practice: Licensed under Apache 2.0 (permissive), allowing use in commercial and proprietary projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install ibm-cloud-sdk-core

import logging
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG, format='%(asctime)s [%(name)s:%(levelname)s] %(message)s')

Requires Python 3.10 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package works with Python 3.14 in practice (classifier lists support but version is future-dated).
- Performance characteristics under high-concurrency token refresh scenarios.

## Package facts

- License: not declared (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 7.2M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

IBM Cloud SDK core library, IBM authentication for Python, IAM token management, IBM Cloud service client base, SDK authentication framework, IBM Cloud API client utilities, bearer token and API key auth, ibm-cloud, authentication, sdk-core

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/ibm-cloud-sdk-core) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/ibm-cloud-sdk-core/)