---
id: pyconify
version: "0.2.1"
license: BSD-3-Clause
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# pyconify — iconify for python. Universal icon framework

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 223.7K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Pyconify is a Python client for the Iconify icon framework, which aggregates over 100 icon sets (FontAwesome, Material Design Icons, Feather, EmojiOne, Noto Emoji, and others) into a single searchable API. It lets you query available icon collections, search for icons by keyword, retrieve icon data and SVG markup, and generate CSS. The package caches downloaded SVGs locally for offline use and faster retrieval, with configurable cache location via environment variable.

The library is designed for developers building applications that need programmatic access to a large, curated icon library. It includes a convenience function to generate freedesktop-compliant icon theme directories from a mapping of icon names to Iconify keys, making it useful for desktop applications or icon theme generation workflows.

Use it for:

- Search and retrieve SVG icons programmatically in a web or desktop application without managing multiple icon libraries.
- Generate a freedesktop-compliant icon theme directory from a custom mapping of icon names to Iconify keys.
- Cache icon SVGs locally for offline use or to reduce repeated API calls during development and testing.
- Fetch icon metadata (keywords, categories) to power icon selection UI or search features in an application.
- Retrieve CSS representations of icons for styling or embedding in web pages.

## Worth the install?

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

Pyconify wraps the Iconify API to search, retrieve, and cache icons from over 100 icon sets including FontAwesome, Material Design Icons, and others, returning SVG, CSS, or icon metadata.

Yes. Pyconify is actively maintained, has low install friction, carries a permissive license, and solves a real problem—centralizing access to a large, diverse icon library. It is well-suited for any project needing programmatic icon retrieval. The single dependency (requests) and support for modern Python versions (3.9–3.13) make it a low-risk addition.

## Install

pip install pyconify
uv add pyconify
poetry add pyconify

## Installing pyconify

Before you install: Low friction install with a single runtime dependency (requests). Actively maintained with recent commits and support for current Python versions (3.9–3.13).

License in practice: BSD-3-Clause permissive license allows use in most projects, including commercial, with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install pyconify

import pyconify

# Search for icons
hits = pyconify.search("python")

# Get SVG
svg = pyconify.svg("fa-brands", "python")

# Get cached path (downloads on first call)
file_name = pyconify.svg_path("fa-brands", "python")

Requires internet access on first fetch of any icon; subsequent calls use local cache.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package's 7 GitHub stars reflect community adoption or if it is primarily used within specific ecosystems.
- Performance characteristics when searching or retrieving from the full 100,000+ icon corpus.

## Package facts

- License: BSD-3-Clause (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 223.7K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

iconify api wrapper, icon search and retrieval, svg icon library, fontawesome material design icons, icon caching and management, icon metadata lookup, freedesktop icon theme generation, icon-library, svg-generation, api-wrapper

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