Pythonator

Run your scripts, web servers and bots on your own computer: sandboxed, supervised, and kept running.
Website · Documentation · FAQ · Changelog

Pythonator is a desktop app for the programs you leave running: a Discord bot, a FastAPI or Express server, a scraper on a schedule. Add a folder, press Start, and it keeps the program running, restarts it when it crashes, and keeps it in a sandbox so it can't read your files or reach ports you didn't give it.

• Supervised. Restarts with back-off, schedules (intervals or cron), memory limits for the whole process tree, live CPU, memory and ports, rotating logs with secrets masked. Services keep running when the window closes.
• Isolated. Sandbox mode (default) uses the operating system's own: Landlock, seccomp and bubblewrap on Linux, Seatbelt on macOS, AppContainer and a job object on Windows. Container mode runs it in hardened Docker or Podman. Full access asks first and shows in red.
• Ports and APIs. List the ports a server may use, and choose whether only this computer or your network too may connect. On Windows, Make reachable sets up the loopback exemption, a loopback permit and firewall rules for that service alone, so the browser on the same PC can open it.
• Plugin-first. Plugins run in their own sandboxed process. Official ones are checked by hash; third-party ones show a warning and start in test mode. Webhooks, Guard and Health checks are included.
• Many languages. Python (with its .venv), Node.js, Bun, Deno, Go, Rust, Java, .NET, Ruby, PHP, PowerShell and shell scripts, or any command. Install packages runs inside the same isolation.
• A real editor. QScintilla: highlighting for every language, folding, multiple carets, fast with big files.
• Git. Clone with hooks and submodules off, pull fast-forward only.

Install

Download the installer for your system from Releases: a setup.exe for Windows, a .dmg for macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), a .deb for Ubuntu, Debian and Raspberry Pi OS, and portable .zip / .tar.gz files. Each release comes with a SHA256SUMS.txt and signed build provenance. Or run it from source with Python 3.12 or later:

git clone https://github.com/cfunkz/Pythonator.git
cd Pythonator
python -m venv .venv
. .venv/bin/activate                       # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install --require-hashes -r requirements.lock
pip install --no-deps -e .
pythonator

Then follow Getting started.

Documentation

For	Read
Using it	Getting started · Services · Isolation modes · Ports and APIs · Languages · Git · Plugins
Building on it	Writing a plugin · Plugin API · Background service API · Adding a language · Architecture
Trust	Security · SECURITY.md
Working on Pythonator	Development and CI

The same pages, with a menu and search-friendly navigation, are on the website.

Security

Please report security problems privately through GitHub's advisories, not in public issues. See SECURITY.md.

License

GPL-3.0. Help ▾ → Licensing in the app lists Pythonator's license and every library it uses.