---
id: referencing
version: "0.37.0"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: aging
---

# referencing — JSON Referencing + Python

License: permissive · Maintenance: aging · Popularity: top 100 on PyPI

## Install

pip install referencing
uv add referencing
poetry add referencing

## Description

===============
``referencing``
===============

|PyPI| |Pythons| |CI| |ReadTheDocs| |pre-commit|

.. |PyPI| image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/referencing.svg
  :alt: PyPI version
  :target: https://pypi.org/project/referencing/

.. |Pythons| image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/pyversions/referencing.svg
  :alt: Supported Python versions
  :target: https://pypi.org/project/referencing/

.. |CI| image:: https://github.com/python-jsonschema/referencing/workflows/CI/badge.svg
  :alt: Build status
  :target: https://github.com/python-jsonschema/referencing/actions?query=workflow%3ACI

.. |ReadTheDocs| image:: https://readthedocs.org/projects/referencing/badge/?version=stable&style=flat
   :alt: ReadTheDocs status
   :target: https://referencing.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

.. |pre-commit| image:: https://results.pre-commit.ci/badge/github/python-jsonschema/referencing/main.svg
  :alt: pre-commit.ci status
  :target: https://results.pre-commit.ci/latest/github/python-jsonschema/referencing/main


An implementation-agnostic implementation of JSON reference resolution.

See `the documentation <https://referencing.readthedocs.io/>`_ for more details.

## AI interpretation — verify before relying

Resolves and manages JSON references across documents, enabling implementation-agnostic handling of `$ref` and related constructs used in JSON Schema, OpenAPI, and AsyncAPI specifications.

Verdict: Stable, permissively licensed package for JSON reference resolution with minimal dependencies and strong adoption. Aging maintenance (304 days since release) is typical for mature, feature-complete libraries; no known vulnerabilities. Safe for production use in JSON Schema and OpenAPI tooling.

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