wptserve

What it is and what it does

wptserve is a specialized HTTP server written in Python for running web platform tests—automated tests that verify browser behavior and web standards compliance. It sits between a test runner and a web browser, serving test pages and handling the HTTP interactions needed to exercise browser features in a controlled way.

The server depends on h2 for HTTP/2 support and pywebsocket3 for WebSocket handling, making it capable of testing modern web protocols. It is marked Production/Stable and has been in use since 2014, but development has slowed significantly—the last release was 455 days ago. It is intended specifically for the web-platform-tests project and similar in-browser testing scenarios rather than general-purpose web serving.

Use it for:

• Run web-platform-tests locally to verify browser standards compliance
• Serve test pages over HTTP/2 and WebSocket for protocol-specific browser testing
• Set up a controlled test environment for automated cross-browser testing
• Test web applications that require specific HTTP server behavior or headers

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

A Python web server built for testing web applications in browsers, particularly for the web-platform-tests project.

Yes, if you are working with web-platform-tests or need a specialized test server for browser testing. The low install friction, permissive license, and stable status make it straightforward to use. However, the 455-day release gap and unspecified Python version support mean you should verify compatibility with your environment before relying on it for new projects.

Install

wptserve on PyPI

pip install wptserve

uv add wptserve

poetry add wptserve

Installing wptserve

Before you install

Low install friction with only two runtime dependencies. Maintenance status is aging—last release was 455 days ago—so expect no active development, though the package is marked Production/Stable.

License in practice

BSD permissive license allows use in most contexts without restriction, including commercial and proprietary projects.

Quickstart

pip install wptserve

from wptserve.server import WebTestHttpd

server = WebTestHttpd()
server.start()

Requires Python environment with h2 and pywebsocket3 available; no minimum Python version specified in metadata.

Verify before relying

• Whether the package works with current Python versions (requires_python is unspecified)
• Active maintenance status and responsiveness to issues given the 455-day gap since last release
• Compatibility with modern versions of h2 and pywebsocket3
• Specific host and port configuration options supported by the server

Package facts

Evidence: wptserve-4.0.3-py3-none-any.whl

Tags

More HTTP Servers packages