MCPInstall

python

Python programming patterns and best practices

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Install

Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.

npx skills add https://github.com/miles990/claude-software-skills --skill python
  1. 01

    Install

    Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.

  2. 02

    Describe the task

    Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads python automatically when relevant.

  3. 03

    Review the result

    The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.

SKILL.md

The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.

Python

Overview

Modern Python development patterns including type hints, async programming, and Pythonic idioms.


Type Hints

Basic Types

from typing import (
    Optional, Union, List, Dict, Set, Tuple,
    TypeVar, Generic, Callable, Any,
    Literal, TypedDict, Protocol
)
from dataclasses import dataclass
from datetime import datetime

# Basic type hints
def greet(name: str) -> str:
    return f"Hello, {name}!"

# Optional (can be None)
def find_user(user_id: str) -> Optional['User']:
    return users.get(user_id)

# Union types
def process(value: Union[str, int]) -> str:
    return str(value)

# Python 3.10+ union syntax
def process_new(value: str | int | None) -> str:
    return str(value) if value else ""

# Collections
def process_items(
    items: List[str],
    mapping: Dict[str, int],
    unique: Set[str],
    pair: Tuple[str, int]
) -> None:
    pass

# Python 3.9+ built-in generics
def process_items_new(
    items: list[str],
    mapping: dict[str, int],
    unique: set[str]
) -> None:
    pass

Advanced Types

# TypeVar for generics
T = TypeVar('T')
K = TypeVar('K')
V = TypeVar('V')

def first(items: list[T]) -> T | None:
    return items[0] if items else None

# Generic classes
class Repository(Generic[T]):
    def __init__(self) -> None:
        self._items: dict[str, T] = {}

    def get(self, id: str) -> T | None:
        return self._items.get(id)

    def save(self, id: str, item: T) -> None:
        self._items[id] = item

# TypedDict for structured dicts
class UserDict(TypedDict):
    id: str
    name: str
    email: str
    age: int  # Required
    nickname: str  # Required

class PartialUserDict(TypedDict, total=False):
    nickname: str  # Optional

# Literal types
Mode = Literal["read", "write", "append"]

def open_file(path: str, mode: Mode) -> None:
    pass

# Protocol (structural typing)
class Readable(Protocol):
    def read(self) -> str: ...

def process_readable(source: Readable) -> str:
    return source.read()

# Callable types
Handler = Callable[[str, int], bool]
AsyncHandler = Callable[[str], 'Awaitable[bool]']

def register_handler(handler: Handler) -> None:
    pass

Dataclasses

from dataclasses import dataclass, field, asdict, astuple
from typing import ClassVar
from datetime import datetime

@dataclass
class User:
    id: str
    email: str
    name: str
    created_at: datetime = field(default_factory=datetime.now)
    tags: list[str] = field(default_factory=list)
    _cache: dict = field(default_factory=dict, repr=False, compare=False)

    # Class variable (not instance field)
    MAX_TAGS: ClassVar[int] = 10

    def __post_init__(self):
        # Validation after init
        if len(self.tags) > self.MAX_TAGS:
            raise ValueError(f"Too many tags (max {self.MAX_TAGS})")

# Frozen (immutable)
@dataclass(frozen=True)
class Point:
    x: float
    y: float

    def distance_from_origin(self) -> float:
        return (self.x ** 2 + self.y ** 2) ** 0.5

# Slots for memory efficiency
@dataclass(slots=True)
class LightweightUser:
    id: str
    name: str

# Convert to dict/tuple
user = User(id="1", email="test@example.com", name="Test")
user_dict = asdict(user)
user_tuple = astuple(user)

Decorators

from functools import wraps
from typing import TypeVar, Callable, ParamSpec
import time

P = ParamSpec('P')
R = TypeVar('R')

# Basic decorator
def timer(func: Callable[P, R]) -> Callable[P, R]:
    @wraps(func)
    def wrapper(*args: P.args, **kwargs: P.kwargs) -> R:
        start = time.perf_counter()
        result = func(*args, **kwargs)
        elapsed = time.perf_counter() - start
        print(f"{func.__name__} took {elapsed:.4f}s")
        return result
    return wrapper

# Decorator with arguments
def retry(max_attempts: int = 3, delay: float = 1.0):
    def decorator(func: Callable[P, R]) -> Callable[P, R]:
        @wraps(func)
        def wrapper(*args: P.args, **kwargs: P.kwargs) -> R:
            last_exception: Exception | None = None
            for attempt in range(max_attempts):
                try:
                    return func(*args, **kwargs)
                except Exception as e:
                    last_exception = e
                    if attempt < max_attempts - 1:
                        time.sleep(delay)
            raise last_exception
        return wrapper
    return decorator

# Class decorator
def singleton(cls):
    instances = {}
    @wraps(cls)
    def get_instance(*args, **kwargs):
        if cls not in instances:
            instances[cls] = cls(*args, **kwargs)
        return instances[cls]
    return get_instance

# Usage
@timer
@retry(max_attempts=3, delay=0.5)
def fetch_data(url: str) -> dict:
    # ... fetch logic
    pass

@singleton
class Database:
    def __init__(self, connection_string: str):
        self.connection_string = connection_string

Async Programming

import asyncio
from typing import AsyncIterator
import aiohttp

# Async function
async def fetch_url(url: str) -> str:
    async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
        async with session.get(url) as response:
            return await response.text()

# Parallel execution
async def fetch_all(urls: list[str]) -> list[str]:
    tasks = [fetch_url(url) for url in urls]
    return await asyncio.gather(*tasks)

# With error handling
async def fetch_all_safe(urls: list[str]) -> list[str | None]:
    tasks = [fetch_url(url) for url in urls]
    results = await asyncio.gather(*tasks, return_exceptions=True)
    return [r if isinstance(r, str) else None for r in results]

# Async context manager
class AsyncDatabase:
    async def __aenter__(self) -> 'AsyncDatabase':
        await self.connect()
        return self

    async def __aexit__(self, exc_type, exc_val, exc_tb) -> None:
        await self.disconnect()

    async def connect(self) -> None:
        print("Connecting...")

    async def disconnect(self) -> None:
        print("Disconnecting...")

# Async generator
async def paginate(
    fetch_page: Callable[[int], 'Awaitable[list[T]]']
) -> AsyncIterator[T]:
    page = 1
    while True:
        items = await fetch_page(page)
        if not items:
            break
        for item in items:
            yield item
        page += 1

# Using async for
async def process_all_items():
    async for item in paginate(fetch_page):
        await process_item(item)

# Semaphore for rate limiting
async def fetch_with_limit(urls: list[str], max_concurrent: int = 10):
    semaphore = asyncio.Semaphore(max_concurrent)

    async def fetch_limited(url: str) -> str:
        async with semaphore:
            return await fetch_url(url)

    return await asyncio.gather(*[fetch_limited(url) for url in urls])

Context Managers

from contextlib import contextmanager, asynccontextmanager
from typing import Generator, AsyncGenerator

# Class-based context manager
class Timer:
    def __init__(self, name: str):
        self.name = name
        self.start: float = 0
        self.elapsed: float = 0

    def __enter__(self) -> 'Timer':
        self.start = time.perf_counter()
        return self

    def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_val, exc_tb) -> None:
        self.elapsed = time.perf_counter() - self.start
        print(f"{self.name}: {self.elapsed:.4f}s")

# Generator-based context manager
@contextmanager
def timer(name: str) -> Generator[None, None, None]:
    start = time.perf_counter()
    try:
        yield
    finally:
        elapsed = time.perf_counter() - start
        print(f"{name}: {elapsed:.4f}s")

# Async context manager
@asynccontextmanager
async def async_timer(name: str) -> AsyncGenerator[None, None]:
    start = time.perf_counter()
    try:
        yield
    finally:
        elapsed = time.perf_counter() - start
        print(f"{name}: {elapsed:.4f}s")

# Usage
with timer("operation"):
    do_something()

async with async_timer("async_operation"):
    await do_something_async()

Itertools and Generators

from itertools import (
    chain, islice, groupby, takewhile, dropwhile,
    combinations, permutations, product, accumulate
)
from typing import Iterator, Iterable

# Generator function
def fibonacci() -> Iterator[int]:
    a, b = 0, 1
    while True:
        yield a
        a, b = b, a + b

# Take first n
first_10_fib = list(islice(fibonacci(), 10))

# Generator expression
squares = (x ** 2 for x in range(10))

# Chain multiple iterables
all_items = chain(list1, list2, list3)

# Group by
data = [
    {"type": "a", "value": 1},
    {"type": "a", "value": 2},
    {"type": "b", "value": 3},
]
for key, group in groupby(sorted(data, key=lambda x: x["type"]), key=lambda x: x["type"]):
    print(f"{key}: {list(group)}")

# Batching
def batch(iterable: Iterable[T], size: int) -> Iterator[list[T]]:
    iterator = iter(iterable)
    while batch := list(islice(iterator, size)):
        yield batch

# Sliding window
def sliding_window(iterable: Iterable[T], size: int) -> Iterator[tuple[T, ...]]:
    from collections import deque
    iterator = iter(iterable)
    window = deque(islice(iterator, size), maxlen=size)
    if len(window) == size:
        yield tuple(window)
    for item in iterator:
        window.append(item)
        yield tuple(window)

Error Handling

from typing import TypeVar, Generic
from dataclasses import dataclass

T = TypeVar('T')
E = TypeVar('E', bound=Exception)

# Custom exceptions
class AppError(Exception):
    def __init__(self, message: str, code: str):
        super().__init__(message)
        self.code = code

class ValidationError(AppError):
    def __init__(self, message: str, fields: dict[str, list[str]]):
        super().__init__(message, "VALIDATION_ERROR")
        self.fields = fields

# Result type pattern
@dataclass
class Ok(Generic[T]):
    value: T

    def is_ok(self) -> bool:
        return True

    def is_err(self) -> bool:
        return False

@dataclass
class Err(Generic[E]):
    error: E

    def is_ok(self) -> bool:
        return False

    def is_err(self) -> bool:
        return True

Result = Ok[T] | Err[E]

def parse_int(s: str) -> Result[int, ValueError]:
    try:
        return Ok(int(s))
    except ValueError as e:
        return Err(e)

# Exception chaining
try:
    process_data()
except ValueError as e:
    raise AppError("Failed to process data", "PROCESS_ERROR") from e

Related Skills

  • [[ai-ml-integration]] - ML/AI with Python
  • [[backend]] - FastAPI/Django
  • [[automation-scripts]] - Scripting and automation

FAQ

What does the python skill do?

Python programming patterns and best practices

How do I install python?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/miles990/claude-software-skills --skill python in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/python/ (personal) or .claude/skills/python/ (project).

Which AI agents can use python?

Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.

Is python safe to install?

No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.

Who maintains python?

It is published by miles990 in miles990/claude-software-skills. It has 76 recorded installs.

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