---
id: pystac-client
version: "0.9.0"
license: Apache-2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# pystac-client — Python library for searching SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) APIs.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 573.9K/mo

## What it is and what it does

PySTAC Client wraps the STAC specification into a Python API, letting you connect to remote STAC catalogs and search for geospatial assets (satellite imagery, raster data, etc.) by spatial bounds, time range, or collection. It sits on top of pystac (which handles local catalog structure) and requests (for HTTP communication), providing a higher-level interface for discovering and accessing spatiotemporal data from services that publish their holdings via the STAC standard.

The library is intended for developers building geospatial applications, data pipelines, or analysis workflows that need to query multiple imagery sources or catalogs programmatically. It handles the API protocol details so you can focus on filtering and retrieving the assets you need.

Use it for:

- Search a remote STAC API for satellite imagery over a specific geographic region and time period.
- Build a data pipeline that automatically discovers and downloads raster datasets from multiple STAC-compliant catalogs.
- Query a STAC catalog to find available collections and inspect their metadata before fetching data.
- Integrate STAC discovery into a geospatial analysis application to let users search for imagery on demand.
- Programmatically retrieve asset URLs and metadata from STAC search results for batch processing.

## Worth the install?

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

PySTAC Client is a Python library for querying and working with SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) APIs, enabling programmatic search and retrieval of geospatial imagery and raster data.

Yes. PySTAC Client is actively maintained, has low install friction, carries no known vulnerabilities, and is the standard Python tool for querying STAC APIs. Install it if you need to search or access geospatial imagery from STAC-compliant services. The Apache-2.0 license is permissive for commercial use.

## Install

pip install pystac-client
uv add pystac-client
poetry add pystac-client

## Installing pystac-client

Before you install: Low friction installation with only three direct dependencies (requests, pystac, python-dateutil). The package is actively maintained with recent commits and supports current Python versions (3.10, 3.11, 3.12).

License in practice: Licensed under Apache-2.0 (permissive), allowing use in commercial and proprietary projects with minimal restrictions beyond attribution and liability disclaimers.

Quickstart:

pip install pystac-client

import pystac_client

# Search a STAC API for items
catalog = pystac_client.Client.open('https://example.com/stac')
items = catalog.search(collections=['collection-id']).get_all_items()

Requires Python 3.10 or later; a working STAC API endpoint URL is needed to perform searches.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package handles authentication for protected STAC APIs or requires external credential management.
- Performance characteristics when working with large result sets or paginated responses from STAC endpoints.

## Package facts

- License: Apache-2.0 (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 573.9K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

STAC API client, geospatial imagery search, spatiotemporal asset catalog, raster data discovery, satellite imagery query, STAC catalog search, geospatial data access, geospatial, stac, remote-sensing

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