SigMF
Easily interact with Signal Metadata Format (SigMF) recordings.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. sigmf is production-stable (Development Status 5), actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and installs with low friction. The copyleft license is standard for signal-processing tools in the radio/gnuradio ecosystem. Install it if you work with RF recordings or need to read/write SigMF files.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Low friction: pure Python wheel with three lightweight runtime dependencies (numpy, jsonschema, defusedxml).
- Actively maintained with a commit as recent as 2026-01-13 and no known vulnerabilities.
License · maintenance · safety
copyleft license (copyleft) — Licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License v3 or later (copyleft). You may use and modify sigmf in proprietary applications, but modifications to sigmf itself must be shared under the same license.
last release 2026-05-30 (76 days) · last repo commit 2026-01-13 · 461 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 74,282 downloads/mo, #14,854 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install sigmf
import sigmf
# Read SigMF recording
meta = sigmf.fromfile("recording.sigmf-meta")
samples = meta[0:1024]
sample_rate = meta.sample_rate
# Write SigMF
import numpy as np
data = np.array([0.1 + 0.2j, 0.3 + 0.4j], dtype=np.complex64)
meta = sigmf.fromarray(data)
meta.tofile("recording")What it is and what it does
sigmf is a Python library for reading and writing Signal Metadata Format (SigMF) recordings, which is a standard format for storing RF (radio frequency) time-series data along with associated metadata. It implements the SigMF specification and handles both raw SigMF files and compressed archives (gzip, xz, zip), as well as importing from other RF formats like WAV, CDIF, and Signal Hound Spike XML.
The library provides a simple API: load recordings with `fromfile()` or create them from numpy arrays with `fromarray()`, then access samples by index, query metadata like sample rate, and write recordings back to disk. It depends on numpy for array handling, jsonschema for metadata validation, and defusedxml for safe XML parsing. The package is compatible with Python 3.7 through 3.14 and is actively maintained.
Use it for
- Load RF recordings captured by software-defined radio (SDR) systems for signal analysis and processing.
- Convert between SigMF and other signal formats (WAV, CDIF, XML) while preserving metadata.
- Create and annotate synthetic RF time-series data with frequency, timestamp, and capture metadata.
- Read compressed signal archives without manual decompression.
- Validate signal metadata against the SigMF specification using jsonschema.
- Build gnuradio-compatible signal workflows that require standardized metadata.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
sigmf is production-stable (Development Status 5), actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and installs with low friction. The copyleft license is standard for signal-processing tools in the radio/gnuradio ecosystem. Install it if you work with RF recordings or need to read/write SigMF files.
Install
sigmf on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction: pure Python wheel with three lightweight runtime dependencies (numpy, jsonschema, defusedxml). Actively maintained with a commit as recent as 2026-01-13 and no known vulnerabilities.
License in practice
Licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License v3 or later (copyleft). You may use and modify sigmf in proprietary applications, but modifications to sigmf itself must be shared under the same license.
Quickstart
pip install sigmf
import sigmf
# Read SigMF recording
meta = sigmf.fromfile("recording.sigmf-meta")
samples = meta[0:1024]
sample_rate = meta.sample_rate
# Write SigMF
import numpy as np
data = np.array([0.1 + 0.2j, 0.3 + 0.4j], dtype=np.complex64)
meta = sigmf.fromarray(data)
meta.tofile("recording")Package facts
| License | copyleft license copyleft |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.7 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 3 packagesnumpyjsonschemadefusedxml |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 76 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 74,282 / month, #14,854 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableLicense :: OSI Approved :: GNU Lesser General Public License v3 or later (LGPLv3+)Operating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9Topic :: Communications :: Ham RadioTopic :: Scientific/Engineering |
Evidence: sigmf-1.11.1-py3-none-any.whl
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