---
id: open-data-contract-standard
version: "3.1.2"
license: unclear
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: aging
---

# open-data-contract-standard — The Pydantic Model of the Open Data Contract Standard

License: permissive · Maintenance: aging · Downloads: 1.4M/mo

## What it is and what it does

This package provides a Pydantic model for the Open Data Contract Standard, a specification for describing data contracts in YAML. It lets you load data contract YAML files into Python objects and serialize them back to YAML, with version tracking that mirrors the Open Data Contract Standard specification versions (3.0.1, 3.0.2, 3.1.0, etc.). The package was extracted from the Data Contract CLI, which remains its primary consumer.

You use it by importing the OpenDataContractStandard model, then calling from_file() or from_string() to parse a contract, and to_yaml() to serialize it back. It depends on pydantic for validation and pyyaml for YAML handling, and requires Python 3.10 or later.

Use it for:

- Load and validate data contract YAML files in a Python application that manages data governance or contracts
- Programmatically construct or modify data contract objects and serialize them back to YAML
- Integrate data contract handling into custom tooling that extends or wraps the Data Contract CLI
- Parse data contracts to extract metadata for documentation, lineage, or compliance tracking systems

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Reads and writes YAML files conforming to the Open Data Contract Standard using Pydantic models, enabling programmatic access to data contract specifications.

Yes, if you need to work with Open Data Contract Standard files in Python. Install friction is low, dependencies are minimal and well-established, and the license is permissive. The aging maintenance status (240 days since last release) is a minor concern but not a blocker—the package is stable and has no known vulnerabilities. Use it when you're building tools that consume or produce ODCS-compliant contracts.

## Install

pip install open-data-contract-standard
uv add open-data-contract-standard
poetry add open-data-contract-standard

## Installing open-data-contract-standard

Before you install: Low install friction with only two runtime dependencies (pydantic and pyyaml). Maintenance status is aging—last release was 240 days ago, though the repository remains active and not archived.

License in practice: Licensed under MIT (permissive), so you can use, modify, and distribute this package freely with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install open-data-contract-standard

from open_data_contract_standard.model import OpenDataContractStandard

data_contract = OpenDataContractStandard.from_file('path/to/data_contract.yaml')
print(data_contract.to_yaml())

Requires Python 3.10 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package is actively maintained or in maintenance-only mode given the 240-day gap since last release
- Real-world adoption beyond the Data Contract CLI (its primary user) and whether community support exists

## Package facts

- License: not declared (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: aging
- Downloads: 1.4M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

open data contract standard python, data contract yaml parser, odcs pydantic model, data contract specification reader, yaml data contract loader, open data contract validation, data contract serialization, data-contracts, yaml-serialization, data-governance

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/open-data-contract-standard) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/open-data-contract-standard/)