---
id: watchgod
version: "0.8.2"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# watchgod — Simple, modern file watching and code reload in python.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 790.8K/mo

## What it is and what it does

watchgod is a file-watching library that monitors a directory tree for changes and can either report those changes to your code or automatically restart a process when files are modified. It provides both synchronous (watch, run_process) and asynchronous (awatch, arun_process) APIs, plus a CLI tool for reloading Python applications during development. The library uses polling rather than OS-level file notifications, which trades some latency for simplicity and cross-platform consistency.

The package depends only on anyio for async support and works across Python 3.7+. However, it has been superseded by a newer package with the same author that uses a different backend for better performance. watchgod is now in maintenance mode and will not receive new features—only critical security fixes.

Use it for:

- Auto-reloading a development web server when Python source files change in the project directory.
- Triggering test runs or linting checks whenever code is modified during active development.
- Building custom file-monitoring tools that need to react to filesystem changes with custom callbacks.
- Watching for changes to configuration or data files and reloading an application in response.
- Implementing a CLI tool that restarts a subprocess when any file in a directory tree is modified.

## Worth the install?

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

Watches a directory for file changes and triggers code reloads or custom callbacks when files are modified, with both synchronous and asynchronous APIs.

No—the package is no longer actively developed and has been renamed. Unless you have an existing dependency or a specific reason to avoid migration, use the successor package instead. If you are already using watchgod, plan a migration; the package will only receive critical security fixes.

## Install

pip install watchgod
uv add watchgod
poetry add watchgod

## Installing watchgod

Before you install: Low install friction with a single runtime dependency (anyio). However, the package is no longer actively developed—it was renamed and will only receive critical security fixes going forward.

License in practice: MIT license permits free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions, making it suitable for both open-source and commercial projects.

Quickstart:

pip install watchgod

from watchgod import watch

for changes in watch('./path/to/dir'):
    print(changes)

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package's polling-based approach meets performance requirements for your specific use case.
- Current state of the migration path and compatibility with the successor package.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 790.8K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

file watching and reload, directory change detection, code reload on file change, filesystem monitoring python, watch files for changes, auto-restart on file modification, dev server file watcher, file-watching, development-tools, deprecated

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