pins
Publish data sets, models, and other python objects, making it easy to share them across projects and with your colleagues.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. Pins solves a real problem in collaborative data work—versioned, multi-backend data sharing—with low friction (pure Python, permissive license, active maintenance). Use it if you need to share datasets or models across projects or people, or if you want automatic versioning without managing a database. Not needed for single-user, single-project workflows.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.9 or later; cloud board usage (S3, GCS, Azure) requires appropriate credentials and network access.
- Low install friction; pure Python wheel with 13 runtime dependencies including pandas, requests, and joblib.
- Actively maintained with recent commits and permissive licensing.
License · maintenance · safety
permissive license (permissive) — Permissive license (MIT per classifiers) means you can use, modify, and distribute pins freely in commercial and private projects without restriction.
last release 2025-10-03 (315 days) · last repo commit 2026-07-14 · 58 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 83,538 downloads/mo, #14,067 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install pins
import pins
board = pins.board_temp()
board.pin_write(data, "my_data", type="csv")
board.pin_read("my_data")- Whether cross-language (Python/R) pin compatibility is production-ready and what version of pins for R is required.
- Performance characteristics and scalability limits for large datasets or high-frequency pin operations.
- Whether Posit Connect integration requires specific server versions or authentication methods beyond environment variables.
What it is and what it does
Pins is a data and model versioning system that lets you save Python objects to a "pin board" — a storage backend you choose — and retrieve them later with automatic version tracking. It bridges collaboration by letting multiple people or projects access the same pinned data, and it works across Python and R. You can pin to local folders, shared drives, or cloud services like S3, Google Cloud Storage, and Azure; Posit Connect users can also share pins through their organization's server.
The typical workflow is simple: create a board (e.g., `board_folder()` for local storage or `board_s3()` for AWS), write objects with `.pin_write()` specifying a name and format (CSV, Parquet, joblib, JSON), and read them back with `.pin_read()`. Each pin is automatically versioned, so you can track what changed, revert to old versions, and audit data lineage. It's built on top of fsspec for flexible storage backends and integrates with pandas, joblib, and YAML for metadata.
Use it for
- Share cleaned datasets across multiple analysis projects without duplicating files or managing manual sync.
- Version model artifacts and training data so teams can reproduce results from any historical checkpoint.
- Publish reports or dashboards to Posit Connect that read shared pins, keeping data in sync automatically.
- Store intermediate results in S3 or GCS during data pipelines so downstream jobs can retrieve them without re-computation.
- Enable R and Python teams to exchange data seamlessly using the same pin board and versioning scheme.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
Pins solves a real problem in collaborative data work—versioned, multi-backend data sharing—with low friction (pure Python, permissive license, active maintenance). Use it if you need to share datasets or models across projects or people, or if you want automatic versioning without managing a database. Not needed for single-user, single-project workflows.
Install
pins on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction; pure Python wheel with 13 runtime dependencies including pandas, requests, and joblib. Actively maintained with recent commits and permissive licensing.
Requires Python 3.9 or later; cloud board usage (S3, GCS, Azure) requires appropriate credentials and network access.
License in practice
Permissive license (MIT per classifiers) means you can use, modify, and distribute pins freely in commercial and private projects without restriction.
Quickstart
pip install pins
import pins
board = pins.board_temp()
board.pin_write(data, "my_data", type="csv")
board.pin_read("my_data")Verify before relying
- Whether cross-language (Python/R) pin compatibility is production-ready and what version of pins for R is required.
- Performance characteristics and scalability limits for large datasets or high-frequency pin operations.
- Whether Posit Connect integration requires specific server versions or authentication methods beyond environment variables.
Package facts
| License | permissive license permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.9 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 13 packagesappdirsfsspechumanizeimportlib-metadataimportlib-resourcesjinja2joblibpandaspyyamlrequestsxxhashdatabackendtyping_extensions |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 315 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 83,538 / month, #14,067 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | License :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseProgramming Language :: Python :: 3 :: OnlyProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9 |
Evidence: pins-0.9.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl
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