---
id: pycomposefile
version: "0.0.34"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: aging
---

# pycomposefile — Structured deserialization of Docker Compose files.

License: permissive · Maintenance: aging · Downloads: 6.3M/mo

## What it is and what it does

Pycomposefile is a Python library for reading and deserializing Docker Compose files into structured data. It takes a compose YAML file and converts it into Python objects you can inspect and manipulate programmatically, rather than parsing raw YAML yourself. The package depends only on pyyaml and requires Python 3.9 or later.

The library is intended for tools or scripts that need to inspect or process compose configurations without running Docker itself. It sits in the top 5000 PyPI packages by download volume, suggesting real-world use, but maintenance appears to have slowed—the last release was over a year ago despite recent repository activity.

Use it for:

- Inspect Docker Compose configurations programmatically in CI/CD pipelines or deployment tools.
- Validate or transform compose files before deployment without executing Docker commands.
- Build tooling that reads service definitions, environment variables, or volume mappings from compose files.
- Generate documentation or reports from compose file structure and configuration.

## Worth the install?

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

Parses and deserializes Docker Compose files into structured Python objects, enabling programmatic access to compose configuration.

Yes, if you need to parse Docker Compose files in Python and don't require active maintenance. The permissive MIT license and low install friction make it straightforward to adopt. However, the aging maintenance status (no release in 381 days) means you should verify the package handles your compose file version and be prepared to fork or patch if bugs arise.

## Install

pip install pycomposefile
uv add pycomposefile
poetry add pycomposefile

## Installing pycomposefile

Before you install: Low install friction with a single dependency (pyyaml). Maintenance is aging—last commit was 2025-08-13 but the package hasn't seen a release in 381 days, suggesting the project may not be actively developed despite the repository remaining open.

License in practice: MIT license permits use in proprietary and open-source projects with minimal restrictions, requiring only attribution.

Quickstart:

pip install pycomposefile

import pycomposefile
compose_data = pycomposefile.parse('docker-compose.yml')

Requires Python 3.9 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package handles all Docker Compose file versions and schema variations.
- API stability and whether breaking changes are expected in future releases.
- Whether the package is maintained or in maintenance-only mode despite the archived flag being false.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: aging
- Downloads: 6.3M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

docker compose file parser, parse docker-compose yaml, docker compose deserialization, compose file structure, docker compose configuration reader, docker, configuration-parsing

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/pycomposefile) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/pycomposefile/)