---
id: pysftp
version: "0.2.9"
license: BSD
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: abandoned
---

# pysftp — A friendly face on SFTP

License: permissive · Maintenance: abandoned · Downloads: 11.6M/mo

## What it is and what it does

pysftp is a wrapper around paramiko's SFTP client that provides a simpler, task-oriented API for common file transfer operations. It offers context managers for connections, directory navigation helpers, recursive directory operations, and file metadata handling—reducing boilerplate for typical SFTP workflows.

The package is in Beta status and has been abandoned since 2016-07-06. While it carries no known vulnerabilities as of the current scan, it has received no maintenance, bug fixes, or security updates. The classifiers indicate testing through Python 3.5, and the underlying paramiko dependency may have evolved significantly since then.

Use it for:

- Uploading or downloading files to a remote SFTP server with minimal connection boilerplate using context managers.
- Recursively transferring directory trees between local and remote systems via put_r and get_r methods.
- Walking remote directory structures and filtering files for batch operations without manual path handling.
- Preserving file modification times during transfers to maintain metadata consistency across systems.

## Worth the install?

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

pysftp provides a high-level Python interface to SFTP operations, wrapping paramiko to simplify file transfer, directory navigation, and remote filesystem tasks.

No. The package is abandoned and has not been updated since 2016-07-06. While it has no known vulnerabilities today, it will not receive security patches or bug fixes going forward. For new projects, use a maintained SFTP library or paramiko directly. For existing code already using pysftp, evaluate migration to an actively maintained alternative.

## Install

pip install pysftp
uv add pysftp
poetry add pysftp

## Installing pysftp

Before you install: Installation has high friction due to compiled dependencies. More critically, the package is abandoned—last release was 2016-07-06. No maintenance or security updates are forthcoming.

License in practice: BSD permissive license places no restrictions on use, modification, or distribution in your own projects.

Quickstart:

import pysftp

with pysftp.Connection('hostname', username='me', password='secret') as sftp:
    sftp.put('/my/local/filename')
    sftp.get('remote_file')

Requires a working SSH/SFTP server accessible from your network and valid credentials (password or private key).

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package works reliably with modern Python versions beyond 3.5 (classifiers list 3.5 as the latest tested).
- Whether underlying paramiko dependency has received security updates that pysftp inherits or whether pysftp's pinned versions are now outdated.
- Active alternatives or maintained forks that may have addressed bugs or security issues since the last release.

## Package facts

- License: BSD (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: high
- Maintenance: abandoned
- Downloads: 11.6M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

sftp client library python, ssh file transfer, remote file upload download, sftp connection manager, paramiko sftp wrapper, sftp-client, abandoned

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