---
id: tooz
version: "9.0.1"
license: Apache-2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# tooz — Coordination library for distributed systems.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 158.6K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Tooz is a coordination library that abstracts away the complexity of building distributed applications by providing a unified API for common distributed primitives. Instead of writing custom code to handle group membership, distributed locks, and leader election, developers use Tooz's consistent interface to these operations, which can be backed by different coordination services. The library is production-stable and actively maintained, supporting Python 3.11 through 3.14.

The package is built on top of established dependencies including stevedore, msgpack, fasteners, tenacity, futurist, oslo.utils, and oslo.serialization. It's designed for teams building distributed systems who need reliable coordination without reinventing these patterns for each new service.

Use it for:

- Implement distributed locks across multiple application instances to prevent concurrent access to shared resources
- Manage group membership to track which nodes are active in a distributed cluster
- Elect a leader node to coordinate work or manage state in a distributed system
- Build distributed task queues or job schedulers that need coordination across workers

## Worth the install?

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

Tooz provides a coordination API for distributed systems, centralizing common primitives like group membership, lock services, and leader election.

Yes. Tooz is production-stable, actively maintained, has low install friction, carries a permissive Apache-2.0 license, and solves a real problem for distributed systems. No known vulnerabilities. Install it if you're building distributed applications that need coordination primitives.

## Install

pip install tooz
uv add tooz
poetry add tooz

## Installing tooz

Before you install: Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel. Active maintenance with a release 15 days ago. Eight runtime dependencies are all established libraries.

License in practice: Apache-2.0 permissive license allows use in commercial and proprietary projects with minimal restrictions; you must include a copy of the license and note any modifications.

Quickstart:

pip install tooz

from tooz import coordination

coord = coordination.get_coordinator('zookeeper://localhost')
coord.start()

Requires Python 3.11 or later; a running coordination backend service (Zookeeper, etcd, etc.) is needed for actual operation.

Verify before relying:

- Which backend coordination services are supported by version 9.0.1
- Whether all eight runtime dependencies are required or some are optional for specific backends
- What coordination primitives beyond group membership, locks, and leader election are available

## Package facts

- License: Apache-2.0 (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 158.6K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

distributed coordination library, group membership protocol, distributed lock service, leader election, distributed primitives, coordination API, distributed systems toolkit, distributed-systems, coordination, openstack

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