kestra
Kestra is an infinitely scalable orchestration and scheduling platform, creating, running, scheduling, and monitoring millions of complex pipelines.
What it is and what it does
Kestra is a Python client library that connects your code to a Kestra orchestration server. It lets you trigger workflows (called flows), wait for them to complete, and retrieve their status and logs. You can also send metrics, counters, timers, and structured outputs back to the Kestra server from within your Python scripts, and read Ion-format data files.
The package is designed for two main patterns: synchronous flow execution where you wait for a flow to finish and get its result, and fire-and-forget execution where you trigger a flow and continue without blocking. It handles authentication via API token or username/password, includes automatic retry logic with exponential backoff for failed requests, and provides a JSON-formatted logger for integration with log management systems.
Use it for:
- Trigger a Kestra workflow from a Python script and wait for completion before proceeding with downstream tasks.
- Send custom metrics and counters to Kestra during a Python task execution for monitoring and observability.
- Retrieve execution logs and status of a Kestra flow run to implement custom error handling or reporting.
- Pass file inputs to a Kestra flow from Python, such as uploading a CSV or text file as a flow parameter.
- Read Ion-format data files downloaded from external sources and convert them to Python dictionaries for data processing.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Provides a Python client to interact with Kestra servers for triggering flows, sending metrics and outputs, and retrieving execution status and logs.
Yes. The package has low install friction, active maintenance, no known vulnerabilities, and a permissive license. It is the official client for Kestra orchestration, making it the natural choice if you need to programmatically interact with a Kestra server from Python. Install it if you are already using or planning to use Kestra for workflow orchestration.
Install
kestra on PyPI
pip
pip install kestrauv
uv add kestrapoetry
poetry add kestraInstalling kestra
Before you install
Low install friction with only three runtime dependencies (requests, amazon.ion, python-dateutil). Package is actively maintained with recent releases and no known vulnerabilities.
License in practice
Apache License 2.0 is permissive; you can use this package in commercial and proprietary projects with minimal restrictions, provided you include a copy of the license.
Quickstart
from kestra import Flow
flow = Flow()
flow.execute('mynamespace', 'myflow', {'param': 'value'})
Requires a running Kestra server accessible via KESTRA_HOSTNAME environment variable or constructor parameter; authentication via KESTRA_API_TOKEN or KESTRA_USER/KESTRA_PASSWORD environment variables.
Verify before relying
- Whether the package supports async/await patterns for non-blocking flow execution beyond the wait_for_completion flag.
- Performance characteristics when polling large numbers of concurrent flow executions.
- Whether retry logic with exponential backoff is configurable by users.
Package facts
| License | Apache License 2.0 (permissive) |
| Python support | supports the current Python release (>=3) |
| Install friction | low — pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 3 — requests, amazon.ion, python-dateutil |
| Maintenance | actively maintained — 164 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 2,869,625/month — #2,850 on PyPI (30-day window, as of 2026-08-14) |
| Known vulnerabilities | none known (OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14) |
Evidence: kestra-1.3.0-py3-none-any.whl
Tags
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