npe2
napari plugin engine v2
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. npe2 is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and is either a direct dependency for napari plugin development or automatically installed with napari itself. Install it if you are building, validating, or managing napari plugins; it is not needed for end users simply running napari with plugins already installed.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.10 or later.
- Low friction install with a pure-Python wheel.
- Actively maintained with a recent release (49 days ago) and current commit activity.
License · maintenance · safety
BSD-3-Clause (permissive) — BSD-3-Clause permissive license allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; suitable for most projects.
last release 2026-06-26 (49 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-13 · 21 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 198,704 downloads/mo, #9,720 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install npe2
npe2 --help
npe2 list
npe2 validate your-plugin-package- Whether npe2 is required separately or automatically installed as a napari dependency in typical usage
- Performance characteristics when managing large numbers of plugins
- Backwards compatibility guarantees between npe2 versions for existing plugin manifests
What it is and what it does
npe2 is the plugin engine that powers napari's extensibility ecosystem. It provides tooling to define, validate, compile, and manage plugins that extend napari's core functionality for scientific imaging and domain-specific tasks. The package includes a command-line tool and programmatic API for plugin developers to build and distribute plugins, and for users to discover and manage installed plugins.
The engine handles plugin manifest validation, compilation of decorator-based plugin contributions into manifests, conversion of older napari plugins to the new format, and runtime plugin discovery. It depends on pydantic for schema validation, typer for CLI scaffolding, and rich for terminal output formatting.
Use it for
- Build a napari plugin by using npe2 to compile @npe2.implements decorators into a valid plugin manifest
- Validate a plugin package before distribution to ensure its manifest conforms to npe2 specifications
- Convert an existing napari v1 plugin to the npe2 format using the convert command
- List and inspect all currently installed napari plugins and their manifests via CLI
- Fetch and parse plugin manifests from remote packages to understand plugin capabilities
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
npe2 is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and is either a direct dependency for napari plugin development or automatically installed with napari itself. Install it if you are building, validating, or managing napari plugins; it is not needed for end users simply running napari with plugins already installed.
Install
npe2 on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction install with a pure-Python wheel. Actively maintained with a recent release (49 days ago) and current commit activity. Depends on well-established libraries like pydantic, typer, and rich.
Requires Python 3.10 or later.
License in practice
BSD-3-Clause permissive license allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; suitable for most projects.
Quickstart
pip install npe2
npe2 --help
npe2 list
npe2 validate your-plugin-packageVerify before relying
- Whether npe2 is required separately or automatically installed as a napari dependency in typical usage
- Performance characteristics when managing large numbers of plugins
- Backwards compatibility guarantees between npe2 versions for existing plugin manifests
Package facts
| License | BSD-3-Clause permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.10 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 10 packagesbuildplatformdirspsygnalpydanticpydantic-extra-typespyyamlrichtomli-wtomlityper |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 49 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 198,704 / month, #9,720 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 3 - AlphaLicense :: OSI Approved :: BSD LicenseNatural Language :: EnglishProgramming 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 :: 3.14Typing :: Typed |
Evidence: npe2-0.8.3-py3-none-any.whl
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See also napari-plugin-engine · napari-plugin-manager · napari-console · napari-svg · napari · spaceforge · pycat-napari · apm-cli · plugincode · colcon-devtools