shapely

Manipulation and analysis of geometric objects

shapely Permissive license BSD 3-Clause Active ★ 4,489 v2.1.2 released 2025-09-24

Install

shapely on PyPI

pip

pip install shapely

uv

uv add shapely

poetry

poetry add shapely

Package facts

License	BSD 3-Clause (permissive)
Python support	supports the current Python release (>=3.10)
Install friction	medium — platform-specific wheel
Runtime dependencies	1 — numpy
Maintenance	actively maintained — 323 days since the last release
Last repo commit	2026-08-12
First released	2007-10-23
Popularity	one of the top 1,000 most-downloaded packages on PyPI (30-day window, as of 2026-08-13)
Known vulnerabilities	none known (OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-13)

Evidence: shapely-2.1.2-cp310-cp310-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp310-cp310-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp310-cp310-manylinux2014_aarch64.manylinux_2_17_aarch64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp310-cp310-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp310-cp310-win32.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp311-cp311-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp311-cp311-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp311-cp311-manylinux2014_aarch64.manylinux_2_17_aarch64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp311-cp311-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp311-cp311-win32.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp311-cp311-win_amd64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp312-cp312-macosx_10_13_x86_64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp312-cp312-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp312-cp312-manylinux2014_aarch64.manylinux_2_17_aarch64.whl; shapely-2.1.2-cp312-cp312-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.whl

Keywords: geometry, topology, gis

Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableIntended Audience :: DevelopersIntended Audience :: Science/ResearchLicense :: OSI Approved :: BSD LicenseOperating System :: MacOSOperating System :: Microsoft :: WindowsOperating System :: UnixProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Topic :: Scientific/Engineering :: GIS

About shapely

from the package's own PyPI description — quoted content, verbatim

======= Shapely =======

.. Documentation at RTD — https://readthedocs.org

.. image:: https://readthedocs.org/projects/shapely/badge/?version=stable :alt: Documentation Status :target: https://shapely.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

.. Github Actions status — https://github.com/shapely/shapely/actions

.. |github-actions| image:: https://github.com/shapely/shapely/workflows/Tests/badge.svg?branch=main :alt: Github Actions status :target: https://github.com/shapely/shapely/actions?query=branch%3Amain

.. PyPI

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

.. Anaconda

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/conda/vn/conda-forge/shapely :alt: Anaconda :target: https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/shapely

.. Coverage

.. |coveralls| image:: https://coveralls.io/repos/github/shapely/shapely/badge.svg?branch=main :target: https://coveralls.io/github/shapely/shapely?branch=main

.. Zenodo

.. .. image:: https://zenodo.org/badge/191151963.svg .. :alt: Zenodo .. :target: https://zenodo.org/badge/latestdoi/191151963

Manipulation and analysis of geometric objects in the Cartesian plane.

.. image::...

Read as markdown · JSON record · Source repository · Docs

AI interpretation — verify before relying

AI-generated interpretation of the package facts above; every digit, version, license, or vulnerability id it cites is grounded in the facts already shown on this page

Shapely provides manipulation and analysis of planar geometric objects through a Python interface to the GEOS geometry library, offering both scalar geometry operations and high-performance NumPy ufuncs for array-based geometry computations.

Medium install friction due to compiled GEOS dependency, but mitigated by extensive pre-built wheels across Python 3.10–3.12 on major platforms (macOS, Linux, Windows). Active maintenance with last commit 2026-08-12 and 4489 GitHub stars signal strong ongoing support.

BSD 3-Clause permissive license allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions. Note that the underlying GEOS library is licensed under LGPL 2.1, which may impose additional obligations depending on how Shapely is linked and distributed.

Usage

pip install shapely
from shapely import Point
patch = Point(0.0, 0.0).buffer(10.0)
print(patch.area)

Requires Python >=3.10, GEOS >=3.9, and NumPy >=1.21; GEOS must be available on the system (typically pre-installed in wheels).

Verdict: Shapely is a mature, actively maintained geospatial library with strong community adoption (top 1000 PyPI packages) and no known vulnerabilities. Medium install friction is offset by comprehensive wheel coverage and permissive licensing. Suitable for production GIS and geometric computing workflows.

Needs verification

Whether pre-built wheels bundle GEOS or require system installation on all supported platforms
Performance characteristics and scalability limits for very large geometry arrays
Integration compatibility with specific GIS packages or data formats beyond WKT/WKB/GeoJSON

geometric object manipulationplanar geometry operationsgis geometry libraryshapely polygon point buffernumpy geometry ufuncsgeos python wrapperspatial geometry analysis