knowit
Know better your media files
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. The package is actively maintained, has no security issues, imposes no licensing restrictions, and solves a concrete problem—reading media metadata—with low install friction and multiple backend options. Install it if you need to programmatically inspect video or audio files.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires at least one external provider (MediaInfo, FFmpeg, or MKVToolNix) installed on the system for full format support; MKV is supported without external tools.
- Low friction install with five runtime dependencies.
- Actively maintained with a release 5 days ago and recent commits; suitable for production use.
License · maintenance · safety
MIT (permissive) — MIT license is permissive and imposes no restrictions on use, modification, or distribution in proprietary or open-source projects.
last release 2026-08-09 (5 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-09 · 38 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 153,736 downloads/mo, #10,871 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install knowit
from knowit import KnowIt
knowit = KnowIt()
result = knowit.know('/path/to/video.mkv')
print(result)- Whether the package's output structure and field names remain stable across minor versions
- Performance characteristics when processing large media files or batch operations
- Completeness of metadata extraction for less common codecs or container formats
What it is and what it does
KnowIt is a Python library and CLI tool that reads media files and extracts their technical metadata—codec, bitrate, resolution, audio channels, language, duration, and more. It wraps multiple backend providers (MediaInfo, FFmpeg, MKVToolNix, Enzyme) so you can choose which tool to use for introspection, and outputs results as structured JSON or YAML.
You use it when you need to programmatically inspect video or audio files in your application, or from the command line to quickly understand what's inside an MKV, MP4, or other container. It depends on babelfish, enzyme, pymediainfo, pyyaml, and trakit to handle language codes, codec detection, and format parsing. The library is actively maintained, supports Python 3.10 through 3.14, and has no known security vulnerabilities.
Use it for
- Batch-process a media library to catalog codec, resolution, and audio track details for archival or validation
- Validate that uploaded video files meet encoding requirements before accepting them in a web application
- Extract language and codec metadata from MKV files to populate a media management database
- Inspect audio properties (channels, bitrate, sampling rate) to verify lossless vs. lossy compression
- Automate quality checks in a transcoding pipeline by reading source file specs before re-encoding
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
The package is actively maintained, has no security issues, imposes no licensing restrictions, and solves a concrete problem—reading media metadata—with low install friction and multiple backend options. Install it if you need to programmatically inspect video or audio files.
Install
knowit on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction install with five runtime dependencies. Actively maintained with a release 5 days ago and recent commits; suitable for production use.
Requires at least one external provider (MediaInfo, FFmpeg, or MKVToolNix) installed on the system for full format support; MKV is supported without external tools.
License in practice
MIT license is permissive and imposes no restrictions on use, modification, or distribution in proprietary or open-source projects.
Quickstart
pip install knowit
from knowit import KnowIt
knowit = KnowIt()
result = knowit.know('/path/to/video.mkv')
print(result)Verify before relying
- Whether the package's output structure and field names remain stable across minor versions
- Performance characteristics when processing large media files or batch operations
- Completeness of metadata extraction for less common codecs or container formats
Package facts
| License | MIT permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release <4.0,>=3.10 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 5 packagesbabelfishenzymepymediainfopyyamltrakit |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 5 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 153,736 / month, #10,871 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableIntended Audience :: DevelopersLicense :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: OnlyProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Topic :: Multimedia :: VideoTopic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules |
Evidence: knowit-0.6.1-py3-none-any.whl
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