---
id: identify
version: "2.6.19"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# identify — File identification library for Python

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Popularity: top 1,000 on PyPI

## Install

pip install identify
uv add identify
poetry add identify

## Description

[![build status](https://github.com/pre-commit/identify/actions/workflows/main.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/pre-commit/identify/actions/workflows/main.yml)
[![pre-commit.ci status](https://results.pre-commit.ci/badge/github/pre-commit/identify/main.svg)](https://results.pre-commit.ci/latest/github/pre-commit/identify/main)

identify
========

File identification library for Python.

Given a file (or some information about a file), return a set of standardized
tags identifying what the file is.

## Installation

```bash
pip install identify
```

## Usage
### With a file on disk

If you have an actual file on disk, you can get the most information possible
(a superset of all other methods):

```python
>>> from identify import identify
>>> identify.tags_from_path('/path/to/file.py')
{'file', 'text', 'python', 'non-executable'}
>>> identify.tags_from_path('/path/to/file-with-shebang')
{'file', 'text', 'shell', 'bash', 'executable'}
>>> identify.tags_from_path('/bin/bash')
{'file', 'binary', 'executable'}
>>> identify.tags_from_path('/path/to/directory')
{'directory'}
>>> identify.tags_from_path('/path/to/symlink')
{'symlink'}
```

When using a file on disk, the checks...

## AI interpretation — verify before relying

Identifies file types by examining file paths, names, shebangs, and content, returning standardized tags for classification. Optionally identifies license types from LICENSE files.

Verdict: Lightweight, actively maintained file identification library with no dependencies and permissive licensing. Suitable for build tools, linters, and file-processing workflows. No known vulnerabilities and top-1000 PyPI popularity.

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/identify) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/identify/)