Asynchronous Python client for Python Portainer.

About

This is an asynchronous Python client for the Portainer API. It is designed to be used with the Portainer container management tool. This package is a wrapper around the Portainer API, which allows you to interact with Portainer programmatically.

In it's current stage it's still in development and not all endpoints are implemented yet.

Installation

pip install pyportainer

Example

import asyncio

from pyportainer import Portainer


async def main() -> None:
    """Run the example."""
    async with Portainer(
        api_url="http://localhost:9000",
        api_key="YOUR_API_KEY",
    ) as portainer:
        endpoints = await portainer.get_endpoints()
        print("Portainer Endpoints:", endpoints)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

More examples can be found in the examples folder.

Image Update Watcher

pyportainer includes a built-in background watcher that continuously monitors your Docker containers for available image updates. It polls Portainer at a configurable interval, checks each running container's local image digest against the registry, and exposes the results for easy consumption.

Basic usage

import asyncio
from datetime import timedelta

from pyportainer import Portainer, PortainerImageWatcher


async def main() -> None:
    async with Portainer(
        api_url="http://localhost:9000",
        api_key="YOUR_API_KEY",
    ) as portainer:
        watcher = PortainerImageWatcher(
            portainer,
            interval=timedelta(hours=6),
        )

        watcher.start()

        await asyncio.sleep(30)  # Let the first check complete

        for (endpoint_id, container_id), result in watcher.results.items():
            if result.status and result.status.update_available:
                print(f"Update available for container {container_id} on endpoint {endpoint_id}")

        watcher.stop()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Configuration

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
portainer	Portainer	—	The Portainer client instance
endpoint_id	int | None	None	Endpoint to monitor. None watches all endpoints
interval	timedelta	12 hours	How often to poll for updates
debug	bool	False	Enable debug-level logging

Results

watcher.results returns a dictionary keyed by (endpoint_id, container_id) tuples. Each value is a PortainerImageWatcherResult containing:

• endpoint_id — the endpoint the container belongs to
• container_id — the container ID
• status — a PortainerImageUpdateStatus with:
  • update_available (bool) — whether a newer image is available in the registry
  • local_digest (str | None) — digest of the locally running image
  • registry_digest (str | None) — digest of the latest image in the registry

You can also inspect watcher.last_check to get the Unix timestamp of the most recent completed poll, or update watcher.interval at runtime to change the polling frequency.

Callbacks

Register a callback to be notified automatically after each poll cycle rather than polling watcher.results yourself. Both sync and async callables are supported:

from pyportainer.watcher import PortainerImageWatcherResult


async def on_result(result: PortainerImageWatcherResult) -> None:
    if result.status and result.status.update_available:
        print(f"Update available for {result.container_id}")


watcher.register_callback(on_result)
# Later, to remove it:
watcher.unregister_callback(on_result)

Callbacks receive one PortainerImageWatcherResult per container per cycle. Exceptions raised inside a callback are logged and do not stop the watcher.

Event Listener

pyportainer also includes a PortainerEventListener that maintains a streaming connection to the Docker events endpoint. Unlike the image watcher, it reacts in real time as events occur; container starts, stops, crashes, image pulls, and more.

Basic usage

import asyncio

from pyportainer import Portainer, PortainerEventListener
from pyportainer.listener import PortainerEventListenerResult


async def on_event(result: PortainerEventListenerResult) -> None:
    print(f"[endpoint {result.endpoint_id}] {result.event.type} {result.event.action}")


async def main() -> None:
    async with Portainer(
        api_url="http://localhost:9000",
        api_key="YOUR_API_KEY",
    ) as portainer:
        listener = PortainerEventListener(
            portainer,
            event_types=["container"],  # only container events
        )
        listener.register_callback(on_event)
        listener.start()

        await asyncio.sleep(60)

        listener.stop()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Configuration

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
portainer	Portainer	—	The Portainer client instance
endpoint_id	int | None	None	Endpoint to listen to. None listens to all endpoints
event_types	list[str] | None	None	Docker event types to filter on. None means all types
reconnect_interval	timedelta	5 seconds	How long to wait before reconnecting after a dropped connection
debug	bool	False	Enable debug-level logging

Connections are automatically re-established after transient errors. Authentication errors stop the listener for the affected endpoint without retrying.

Querying past events

Use get_recent_events to fetch a bounded list of past events without starting a persistent listener:

from datetime import UTC, datetime, timedelta

events = await portainer.get_recent_events(
    endpoint_id=1,
    since=datetime.now(UTC) - timedelta(hours=1),
)

Or stream events in real time directly with get_events:

async for event in portainer.get_events(endpoint_id=1, filters={"type": ["container"]}):
    print(event.action, event.actor.id)

Documentation

The full documentation, including API reference, can be found at: https://erwindouna.github.io/pyportainer/

Contributing

This is an active open-source project. We are always open to people who want to use the code or contribute to it.

We've set up a separate document for our contribution guidelines.

Thank you for being involved! 😍

Setting up development environment

The simplest way to begin is by utilizing the Dev Container feature of Visual Studio Code or by opening a CodeSpace directly on GitHub. By clicking the button below you immediately start a Dev Container in Visual Studio Code.

This Python project relies on [UV][poetry] as its dependency manager, providing comprehensive management and control over project dependencies.

Installation

Install all packages, including all development requirements:

uv sync --all-groups && pre-commit install

UV creates by default an virtual environment where it installs all necessary pip packages.

Pre-commit

This repository uses the pre-commit framework, all changes are linted and tested with each commit. To setup the pre-commit check, run:

uv run pre-commit install

And to run all checks and tests manually, use the following command:

uv run pre-commit run --all-files

Testing

It uses pytest as the test framework. To run the tests:

uv run pytest

To update the syrupy snapshot tests:

uv run pytest --snapshot-update

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Erwin Douna

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.