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Thistauri v2 plugin is supposed to make it easy to use Python as backend code.
It usesRustPython or alternativelyPyO3 as interpreter to call python from rust.

RustPython doesn't require python to be installed on the target platform and makes it
therefore easy to deploy your production binary. Unfortunately, it doesn't even supportsome usually built-int python libraries and is slower than PyO3/CPython.PyO3 is supported as optional Cargo feature for desktop applications.PyO3 uses the usual CPython as interpreter and therefore has a wide compatibility for available python libraries.It isn't used as default as it requires to make libpython available for the target platform,
which can be complicated, especially for mobile targets.

The plugin reads by default the filesrc-tauri/src-python/main.py during
startup and runs it immediately. Make sure to add all your python source as tauri resource,
so it is shipped together with your production binaries. Python functions are all registered during plugin initialization
and can get called during application workflow.

x* There is currently a known issue on tauri+android that prevents reading files.
tauri-apps/tauri#11823
So python code cannot be read on android right now. Android is going to be supported as soon as reading resource files will be fixed.

✓* Linux, Windows and MacOS support PyO3 and RustPython as interpreter. Android and iOS
currently only support RustPython.
Android and iOS might also be able to run with PyO3 in theory but would require to have CPython
to be compiled for the target platform. I still need to figure out how to
cross compile python and PyO3 for iOS and Android. Ping me if you know how to do that.

You can use this plugin for fast prototypes or for (early) production code.It might be possible that you want to use some python library or code that
is not available for rust yet.
In case that you want to ship production software packages, you need
to make sure to also ship all your python code. If you use PyO3, you also need to ship libpython too.

UsingPyO3 will support much more python libraries than RustPython as it is using CPython.

# src-tauri/Cargo.tomltauri-plugin-python = {version="0.3",features = ["pyo3"] }

Unfortunately, using PyO3 will use a shared libpython by default, which makeslocal development easy but makesdeployment of releases more complicated.Therefore, it may be recommended to either usepyoxidizer to embed libpython staticallyor try to ship the dynamic libpython together with your application, for example as partof the .venv. Check out thePyO3 documentation for additional support.

Example of how to embed libpython statically using PyOxidizer:

This has just been tested locally on MacOS. It may be possible that this is more complicated and requires additional steps on your environment.

Install pyoxidizerpip install pyoxidizer in a venv and run it on bash:

pyoxidizer generate-python-embedding-artifacts src-tauri/target/pyembed

Then, add it to your cargo config:

# src-tauri/.cargo/config.tomlPYO3_CONFIG_FILE = {value ="target/pyembed/pyo3-build-config-file.txt",relative =true }

You can check if the release binary has some shared libpython references by runningotool -L tauri_app on MacOs orldd tauri_app on linux.

There is a sample Desktop application for Windows/Linux/MacOS using this plugin and vanilla
Javascript inexamples/plain-javascript.

These steps assume that you already have a basic tauri application available. Alternatively, you can immediately start with the application in "example" directory.

• runnpm run tauri add python
• addsrc-tauri/src-python/main.py and modify it according to your needs, for example add

# src-tauri/src-python/main.py_tauri_plugin_functions= ["greet_python"]# make "greet_python" callable from UIdefgreet_python(rust_var):returnstr(rust_var)+" from python"

• add"bundle": {"resources": [ "src-python/"], totauri.conf.json so that python files are bundled with your application
• add the plugin in your js, so
  • addimport { callFunction } from 'tauri-plugin-python-api'
  • addoutputEl.textContent = await callFunction("greet_python", [value]) to get the output of the python functiongreet_python with parameter of js variablevalue

Check the examples for alternative function calls and code sugar.

Tauri events and calling js from python is currently not supported yet. You would need to use rust for that.

• $ cargo add tauri-plugin-python
• $ npm install tauri-plugin-python-api
• modifypermissions:[] in src-tauri/capabilities/default.json and add "python:default"
• add filesrc-tauri/src-python/main.py and add python code, for example:

# src-tauri/src-python/main.pydefgreet_python(rust_var):returnstr(rust_var)+" from python"

• add.plugin(tauri_plugin_python::init_and_register(vec!["greet_python"])) totauri::Builder::default(), usually insrc-tauri/src/lib.rs. This will initialize the plugin and make the python function "greet_python" available from javascript.
• add javascript for python plugin in the index.html file directly or somewhere in your javascript application. For vanilla javascript / iife, the modules can be found inwindow.__TAURI__.python. For modern #"auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="import { callFunction } from 'tauri-plugin-python-api'console.log(await callFunction("greet_python", ["input value"]))">

  import{callFunction}from'tauri-plugin-python-api'console.log(awaitcallFunction("greet_python",["input value"]))

import{call,registerJs}from'tauri-plugin-python-api'registerJs("greet_python");console.log(awaitcall.greet_python("input value"));

Using a venv

python3 -m venv .venvsource .venv/bin/activate# or run the .venv/bin/activate.bat scriptpip install<your_lib>

"resources": {"src-python/":"src-python/","../.venv/include/":"src-python/.venv/include/","../.venv/lib/":"src-python/.venv/lib/"}

Deployment

Security considerations

Alternatives