---
id: pytoml
version: "0.1.21"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# pytoml — A parser for TOML-0.4.0

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 604.6K/mo

## What it is and what it does

pytoml is a TOML file parser and serializer that mirrors the standard library's json module interface. It reads TOML configuration files into Python dictionaries and writes dictionaries back to TOML format. The library accepts both bytes (UTF-8 decoded) and unicode strings as input, making it straightforward to integrate into configuration-loading workflows.

The package is deprecated and no longer maintained. Its last release was in 2019, and the project's own documentation recommends using alternatives. While it remains functional for TOML 0.4.0 files and has no known vulnerabilities, new projects should consider more actively maintained options.

Use it for:

- Loading application configuration from TOML files in legacy projects still using this library
- Reading TOML-formatted settings in Python 2.7 or early Python 3 codebases where migration is not yet planned
- Parsing TOML 0.4.0 files in environments where dependency updates are constrained

## Worth the install?

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

Parses and writes TOML configuration files with a JSON-like interface, supporting TOML version 0.4.0.

No, unless you are maintaining legacy code already using pytoml. The project is explicitly deprecated and unmaintained since 2019. For new projects, use an actively maintained TOML parser instead. The package itself is stable and has no known vulnerabilities, but the lack of maintenance means no fixes for future TOML spec changes or Python compatibility issues.

## Install

pip install pytoml
uv add pytoml
poetry add pytoml

## Installing pytoml

Before you install: Low install friction with no runtime dependencies. However, the project is no longer actively maintained—the last release was in 2019, and the maintainer explicitly recommends considering alternatives.

License in practice: MIT license permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions, requiring only attribution and inclusion of the license notice.

Quickstart:

pip install pytoml

import pytoml as toml
obj = toml.loads('a = 1')
print(obj)

with open('file.toml', 'rb') as fin:
    obj = toml.load(fin)

Requires Python 2.7+ or 3.5+; input bytes must be UTF-8 encoded with no BOM.

Verify before relying:

- Whether TOML 0.4.0 support is sufficient for current use cases or if newer TOML spec versions are needed
- How the package compares in correctness or performance to actively maintained alternatives

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 604.6K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

toml parser python, toml file reader, toml configuration parsing, toml serialization, parse toml files, deprecated, config-parsing

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