Python library “Requests” needs you to test type hints

Requests is a popular HTTP client library available on the Python Package Index (PyPI). Sitting in the top 10 packages by downloads on PyPI, this library is used by many, many projects. This library is known for its user-friendly and ergonomic API for HTTP requests and responses. However, the API implementation can sometimes confuse static analysis tools like IDEs or type checkers, causing issues for users.

Requests maintainer Nate Prewitt is planning to add support for type hints to Requests in the next three months. Right now the feature is available as a development branch but will later be published to PyPI as a pre-release version. The goal is to find and fix issues before rolling the change out to users to avoid unnecessary breakage.

What can you do to help?

Shipping large changes to codebases this popular is difficult without breaking users. This is where you come in: Requests needs your help! If your project or application uses Requests as a dependency, try installing and running the development branch with type hints. This is especially useful if your project uses type hints and a type checker like Mypy, Pyright, or Ty.

Here's how you can install the development branch. These instructions are available in the pull request, too:

• python -m pip install git+https://github.com/psf/requests.git@inline_types_rfc
• uv install git+https://github.com/psf/requests.git@inline_types_rfc

After installation:

• Run your existing test suite
• Run Pyright or Mypy against your code that uses Requests
• Try your usual Requests patterns and see if anything doesn't typecheck

If you encounter issues after running your test suite or type checker with the development branch: please report them on GitHub. Be sure to check the list of known issues and search for a duplicate of your issue before opening a new one. When reporting an issue, be as descriptive as possible:

• What Python version? (python --version)
• What dependencies are you using? (python -m pip freeze)
• What type checker are you using, what settings? (Mypy, Pyright, Ty)

This will help Requests maintainers address your issue quickly ahead of shipping the new type hints. Thanks much for your contributions towards shipping this feature smoothly. 🙏

Thanks for keeping RSS alive! ♥