nestedtext
human readable and writable data interchange format
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. NestedText is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and installs with minimal friction. It's worth installing if you need a human-friendly alternative to JSON or YAML for configuration, test data, or structured text that avoids quoting and escaping overhead. The permissive MIT license poses no barrier.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Low friction: pure Python wheel with a single dependency (inform).
- Active maintenance with recent commits and no known vulnerabilities.
License · maintenance · safety
permissive license (permissive) — MIT license (permissive) — you can use, modify, and distribute this package freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.
last release 2025-12-26 (231 days) · last repo commit 2026-07-11 · 398 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 76,513 downloads/mo, #14,620 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install nestedtext
import nestedtext
data = nestedtext.loads(open('config.nt').read())
print(data['name'])- Whether the package handles round-trip serialization (load then dump) without data loss or formatting changes.
- Performance characteristics when working with large files or deeply nested structures.
- Whether inform dependency adds any runtime overhead or external system requirements.
What it is and what it does
NestedText is a file format designed to make structured data easy for humans to read, edit, and write directly. Unlike JSON or YAML, it uses only strings as values—no integers, booleans, or floats—which eliminates the need for quoting and escaping. This simplicity makes the format robust against syntax errors and allows raw text (including code snippets) to be embedded without confusion.
The package provides a Python implementation with functions to parse NestedText files into Python dictionaries and lists, and to serialize them back to the format. It's intended for configuration files, data journals, address books, and similar applications where human readability matters. The format also works well for structured code use cases—like test specifications or workflow definitions—where embedding unquoted code snippets is valuable.
Use it for
- Write and parse configuration files that are cleaner and more hierarchical than INI or TOML formats.
- Store test case specifications (commands, expected outputs, regexes) without quoting or escaping code snippets.
- Create human-editable data files (address books, contact lists, account information) that don't require special syntax knowledge.
- Build command-line tools that output data readable by both humans and other programs without a separate JSON flag.
- Define structured code or domain-specific languages where code snippets must be embedded without escaping conflicts.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
NestedText is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and installs with minimal friction. It's worth installing if you need a human-friendly alternative to JSON or YAML for configuration, test data, or structured text that avoids quoting and escaping overhead. The permissive MIT license poses no barrier.
Install
nestedtext on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction: pure Python wheel with a single dependency (inform). Active maintenance with recent commits and no known vulnerabilities.
License in practice
MIT license (permissive) — you can use, modify, and distribute this package freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.
Quickstart
pip install nestedtext
import nestedtext
data = nestedtext.loads(open('config.nt').read())
print(data['name'])Verify before relying
- Whether the package handles round-trip serialization (load then dump) without data loss or formatting changes.
- Performance characteristics when working with large files or deeply nested structures.
- Whether inform dependency adds any runtime overhead or external system requirements.
Package facts
| License | permissive license permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.6 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 1 packageinform |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 231 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 76,513 / month, #14,620 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 LicenseNatural Language :: EnglishOperating System :: POSIX :: LinuxProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Topic :: Text Processing :: MarkupTopic :: Utilities |
Evidence: nestedtext-3.8-py3-none-any.whl
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See also rison · prison · MarkupSafe · humanfriendly · paradict · agate · conllu · FormEncode · drf-writable-nested · ctparse