serious_python #

A cross-platform plugin for adding embedded Python runtime to your Flutter apps.

Serious Python embeds Python runtime into a mobile or desktop Flutter app to run a Python program on a background, without blocking UI. Processing files, working with SQLite databases, calling REST APIs, image processing, ML, AI and other heavy lifting tasks can be conveniently done in Python and run directly on a mobile device.

Build app backend service in Python and host it inside a Flutter app. Flutter app is not directly calling Python functions or modules, but instead communicating with Python environment via some API provided by a Python program, such as: REST API, sockets, SQLite database or files.

Serious Python is part of Flet project - the fastest way to build multi-platform apps in Python. The motivation for building Serious Python was having a re-usable easy-to-use plugin, maintained and supported, to run real-world Python apps, not just "1+2" or "hello world" examples, on iOS or Android devices and hence the name "Serious Python".

Platform Support #

Python versions #

The plugin can bundle one of several Python releases per build, selected via the --python-version X.Y flag of serious_python:main package (or the SERIOUS_PYTHON_VERSION env var picked up by the Android/Darwin/Linux/Windows plugin build scripts). Defaults to the latest supported version when nothing is specified.

The default is the latest stable row (currently 3.14) when neither --python-version nor SERIOUS_PYTHON_VERSION is set. When running through flet build, the same resolution is applied to [project].requires-python in your pyproject.toml, so most users never need to touch this flag directly.

SERIOUS_PYTHON_VERSION (short, e.g. 3.14) is the only input you set — the full version, python-build release date, Pyodide version/tag, and dart_bridge version all derive from it. (SERIOUS_PYTHON_FULL_VERSION, SERIOUS_PYTHON_BUILD_DATE, DART_BRIDGE_VERSION exist as rarely-needed escape hatches.) A single export SERIOUS_PYTHON_VERSION=3.13 covers both the packaging phase and the later Flutter build.

Source of truth: the date-keyed manifest.json published by flet-dev/python-build. serious_python pins one release and commits generated snapshots of it — lib/src/python_versions.dart (used by the CLI) and a python_versions.properties in each platform package (read by the native build configs). To bump versions see CONTRIBUTING.md; never hand-edit the generated files. Pre-release CPython lines are marked prerelease: true, so they're opt-in via explicit --python-version (or requires-python = "==3.15.*") without becoming the auto-resolved default.

Usage #

Zip your Python app into app.zip, copy to app (or any other) directory in the root of your Flutter app and add it as an asset to pubspec.yaml:

flutter:
  assets:
    - app/app.zip

Import Serious Python package into your app:

import 'package:serious_python/serious_python.dart';

The plugin is built against iOS 13.0, so you might need to update iOS version in ios/Podfile:

# Uncomment this line to define a global platform for your project
platform :ios, '13.0'

Create an instance of SeriousPython class and call its run() method:

SeriousPython.run("app/app.zip");

When the app starts the archive is unpacked to a temporary directory and Serious Python plugin will try to run main.py in the root of the archive. Current directory is changed to a temporary directory.

If your Python app has a different entry point it could be specified with appFileName parameter:

SeriousPython.run("app/app.zip", appFileName: "my_app.py");

You can pass a map with environment variables that should be available in your Python program:

SeriousPython.run("app/app.zip",
    appFileName: "my_app.py",
    environmentVariables: {"a": "1", "b": "2"});

By default, Serious Python expects Python dependencies installed into __pypackages__ directory in the root of app directory. You can add additional paths to look for 3rd-party packages using modulePaths parameter:

SeriousPython.run("app/app.zip",
    appFileName: "my_app.py",
    modulePaths: ["/absolute/path/to/my/site-packages"]);

By default the Python program runs in a background thread so the Flutter UI stays responsive. Pass sync: true to run it on the calling thread instead — useful for short utility programs or when calling from a Dart isolate; long-running synchronous programs will freeze the UI on the main isolate:

SeriousPython.run("app/app.zip", sync: true);

Packaging Python app #

Tip: serious_python is also driven automatically by flet build, which threads --python-version and friends through for you. The instructions below cover direct standalone usage for non-Flet Flutter apps.

To simplify the packaging of your Python app Serious Python provides a CLI which can be run with the following command:

dart run serious_python:main

There is package command which takes a directory with Python app as the first argument. The command must be run in Flutter app root directory, where pubspec.yaml is located. The path could be either relative or an absolute.

To package Python files for the specific platform:

dart run serious_python:main package app/src -p {platform}

where {platform} can be one of the following: Android, iOS, Darwin, Windows, Linux or Emscripten. (Darwin covers both macOS apps and is the value used internally by platform.system() in the bundled Python; it is not spelled macOS.)

By default, the command creates app/app.zip asset, but you can change its path/name with --asset argument:

dart run serious_python:main package --asset assets/myapp.zip app/src -p {platform}

Selecting a Python version

Pick which CPython line to bundle with --python-version (or set SERIOUS_PYTHON_VERSION in the build environment):

dart run serious_python:main package app/src -p Android --python-version 3.13 -r flet

Supported short versions today are 3.12, 3.13, 3.14; the default is the latest stable. The same env var (SERIOUS_PYTHON_VERSION) is also read by each platform plugin's build script (build.gradle, the serious_python_darwin podspec, the Linux/Windows CMakeLists.txt) when flutter build runs later, so a single export covers both the packaging phase and the Flutter build phase. See the Python versions table above for the matching CPython and Pyodide releases.

Note: changing the bundled Python version for an app you've already built requires a clean build (delete the app's build/ directory, or run flutter clean) so stale compiled bytecode from the previous version isn't reused.

Installing requirements

Python app dependencies are installed with the --requirements option (alias -r). The value is passed verbatim to pip, so any flag pip accepts works. Pass each dependency as its own option to support specifiers that contain commas:

dart run serious_python:main package app/src -p Darwin \
    -r flet -r 'pandas>=2.2,<3' -r numpy==2.1.1

To install from a requirements.txt file, pass -r three times (twice for pip's own -r flag, once more for the file path) so the Dart CLI hands the literal -r requirements.txt invocation to pip:

dart run serious_python:main package app/src -p iOS \
    -r -r -r app/src/requirements.txt

The comma-separated form (--requirements flet,numpy==2.1.1) was removed in 0.9.2 as a breaking change so dependency specifiers containing , (like pandas>=2.2,<3) can be expressed; use the per-option form shown above instead.

To package for iOS and Android platforms developer should set SERIOUS_PYTHON_SITE_PACKAGES environment variable with a path to a temp directory for installed app packages. The contents of that directory is embedded into app bundle during app compilation.

For example:

export SERIOUS_PYTHON_SITE_PACKAGES=$(pwd)/build/site-packages
dart run serious_python:main package app/src -p iOS -r -r -r app/src/requirements.txt

For macOS, Linux and Windows app packages are installed into __pypackages__ inside app package asset zip.

Make sure generated asset is added to pubspec.yaml.

Python app structure #

By default, embedded Python program is run in a separate thread, to avoid UI blocking. Your Flutter app is not supposed to directly call Python functions or modules, but instead it should communicate via some API provided by a Python app, such as: REST API, sockets, SQLite database, files, etc.

To constantly run on background a Python program must be blocking, for example a Flask app listening on 8000 port, or you can start your long-running computations in threading.Thread and use threading.Event to prevent program from exiting.

Synchronous execution of Python program is also supported with sync: true parameter to SeriousPython.run() method. For example, it could be a utility program doing some preperations, etc. Just make sure it's either very short or run in a Dart isolate to avoid blocking UI.

Supported Python packages #

All "pure" Python packages are supported. These are packages that implemented in Python only, without native extensions written in C, Rust or other low-level language.

The following iOS and Android packages are supported: https://pypi.flet.dev

The following Pyodide packages are supported: https://pyodide.org/en/stable/usage/packages-in-pyodide.html

Additional Python binary packages for iOS and Android can be built with adding a new recipe to Mobile Forge project.

Request additional packages for iOS and Android on Flet Discussions - Packages.

How packaging works #

dart run serious_python:main package assembles two things, which the platform plugin then bundles into your Flutter app:

1. The CPython runtime + standard library — a per-target build downloaded from flet-dev/python-build (and, for native extensions, mobile-forge) and bundled by the plugin at build time.
2. Your app + its dependencies — your Python sources are zipped into an asset (app/app.zip by default), and pip-installed packages are placed where each platform expects them.

At runtime the plugin sets PYTHONHOME / PYTHONPATH (or, on Android, installs a custom importer) so the interpreter finds the stdlib, your dependencies, and your app.

The on-disk layout differs per platform, mostly because each OS has different rules for shipping native (compiled) extension modules — the .so/.pyd/.dylib files inside packages like numpy:

Your app program (all platforms) #

package copies your Python sources into a temp dir (honoring --exclude globs, optionally compiling to .pyc with --compile-app), zips it to app/app.zip (override with -a/--asset), and writes an app.zip.hash next to it. At runtime the asset is extracted once to the app's support directory (<app-support>/flet/app), guarded by a hash + an optional invalidateKey (typically your app version) so it only re-extracts when the bundle changes — debug builds always re-extract. Your app dir is placed first on sys.path; a sibling __pypackages__/ is also added (so you can vendor pure-Python deps next to your code).

pip install output goes to build/site-packages by default (override with the SERIOUS_PYTHON_SITE_PACKAGES env var). For mobile, packages are installed per architecture (a sitecustomize.py shim spoofs the wheel platform tag so the correct mobile wheels resolve), then merged or split per platform as shown above.

Android specifics #

• Pure Python (stdlib + dependencies) ships in two stored (uncompressed) ABI-common zips — stdlib.zip and sitepackages.zip — copied once to the app's files dir and imported in place via zipimport. Final sys.path (highest first): your app dir, the extract dir, sitepackages.zip, stdlib.zip.
• Native modules (stdlib lib-dynload and site-package extensions) are relocated to jniLibs/<abi>/lib<mangled>.so and loaded directly from the APK (memory-mapped, never extracted to disk); a sys.meta_path finder resolves them from .soref markers left in the zips. This is why Android needs no useLegacyPackaging / keepDebugSymbols config and the stdlib is not duplicated per ABI.
• Path-hungry packages (those that read bundled data via __file__ / pkg_resources rather than importlib.resources) can be shipped extracted to disk instead of inside the zip — list them (comma-separated relative paths) in SERIOUS_PYTHON_ANDROID_EXTRACT_PACKAGES; they go into extract.zip and are unpacked to disk at first launch.
• Works for both single APK (flutter build apk) and Play Store App Bundles (per-ABI config splits); under legacy packaging / minSdk < 23 the same finder falls back to loading from the extracted nativeLibraryDir.

iOS / macOS specifics #

The CPython runtime, stdlib, and (on iOS) native extensions are bundled into serious_python_darwin.framework as resources. On iOS, the App Store forbids loose .dylibs, so every native extension .so is repackaged into a signed .framework inside an .xcframework, with a .fwork text marker left at the module's import path; CPython's AppleFrameworkLoader reads the marker and loads the framework binary. On macOS, native extensions stay as plain .so, merged into universal (arm64+x86_64) binaries at package time. PYTHONHOME is the framework's resource path; sys.path includes <resources>/site-packages, <resources>/stdlib, and <resources>/stdlib/lib-dynload.

Linux / Windows specifics #

The CPython runtime (libpython3.so + libpython<X.Y>.so on Linux; python3.dll + python<XY>.dll on Windows), libdart_bridge, the stdlib, and native modules are copied next to your app's executable at build time. PYTHONHOME is the executable's directory. On Windows, extension modules (.pyd) and their dependent DLLs live in <exe-dir>/DLLs/, which is added to sys.path.

Platform notes #

Build matrix #

The following matrix shows which platform you should build on to target specific platforms:

macOS #

macOS 10.15 (Catalina) is the minimal supported vesion of macOS.

You have to update your Flutter app's macos/Podfile to have this line at the very top:

platform :osx, '10.15'

Also, make sure macos/Runner.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj contains:

MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET = 10.15;

Android #

No special native-library packaging config is required (see How packaging works). serious_python loads native modules directly from the APK and ships pure Python in stored asset zips, so you don't need useLegacyPackaging, keepDebugSymbols, extractNativeLibs, or android.bundle.enableUncompressedNativeLibs. Just use a minSdk of 23+ so native libs stay uncompressed/page-aligned in the APK:

android {
    defaultConfig {
        minSdk = 23
    }
}

Troubleshooting #

Detailed logging #

Use --verbose flag to enabled detailed logging:

dart run serious_python:main package app/src -p Darwin --verbose

Examples #

Python REPL with Flask backend.

Flet app.

Run Python app.