pip-api

An unofficial, importable pip API

pip-api Permissive license Active ★ 120 v0.0.34 released 2024-07-09

Install

pip-api on PyPI

pip

pip install pip-api

uv

uv add pip-api

poetry

poetry add pip-api

Package facts

License	not declared (permissive)
Python support	supports the current Python release (>=3.8)
Install friction	low — pure-Python wheel
Runtime dependencies	1 — pip
Maintenance	actively maintained — 765 days since the last release
Last repo commit	2026-08-05
First released	2018-03-20
Popularity	one of the top 1,000 most-downloaded packages on PyPI (30-day window, as of 2026-08-13)
Known vulnerabilities	none known (OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-13)

Evidence: pip_api-0.0.34-py3-none-any.whl

License :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software LicenseProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: OnlyProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9

About pip-api

from the package's own PyPI description — quoted content, verbatim

GitHub - License (image) PyPI - Python Version (image) PyPI - Package Version (image) Conda - Platform (image) Conda (channel only) (image) Conda Recipe (image)

Since pip is a command-line-tool, [it does not have an official, supported,...

Read as markdown · JSON record · Source repository · Homepage

AI interpretation — verify before relying

AI-generated interpretation of the package facts above; every digit, version, license, or vulnerability id it cites is grounded in the facts already shown on this page

Provides an importable Python API that wraps pip's command-line interface, allowing programmatic access to pip functionality like querying installed distributions and parsing requirements files.

Low friction: pure Python wheel with only pip as a runtime dependency. Actively maintained with recent releases; last commit 2026-08-05 and latest release 2024-07-09.

Licensed under Apache Software License (permissive), allowing commercial and private use with minimal restrictions.

Usage

pip install pip-api

import pip_api

# Get pip version
version = pip_api.version()

# List installed distributions
dists = pip_api.installed_distributions()
for dist in dists:
    print(f"{dist.name} {dist.version}")

# Parse requirements file
reqs = pip_api.parse_requirements('requirements.txt')

Requires Python 3.8 or later; pip must be installed and available in the environment.

Verdict: Stable, low-friction wrapper around pip's CLI with active maintenance and no known vulnerabilities. Suitable for tools that need programmatic access to pip functionality without relying on pip's unsupported internal API. Used by established projects like pip-audit and pytest-reqs.

Needs verification

Whether the package's Apache license is explicitly declared in SPDX or raw metadata (license_raw and license_spdx are both null despite classifier indicating Apache).
Performance characteristics when querying large numbers of installed distributions or parsing complex requirements files.

pip programmatic apiquery installed packages pythonparse requirements filepip wrapper librarypip command line wrapperinstalled distributions queryrequirements parsing