PythonAnywhere¶

A Briefcase publication channel plugin that deploys static web apps to PythonAnywhere.

There is a tutorial that builds on top of the BeeWare Tutorial and walks you through deploying your first app to PythonAnywhere.

Prerequisites¶

A PythonAnywhere account
An API token (from your Account page on PythonAnywhere)

Installation¶

Install the plugin into your Briefcase project's virtual environment:

(venv) $ pip install pythonanywhere-briefcase-plugin

Quick start¶

First, build and package your web app:

(venv) $ briefcase create web static
(venv) $ briefcase build web static
(venv) $ briefcase package web static

Set your PythonAnywhere API token:

(venv) $ export API_TOKEN=your-api-token-here

Then publish:

(venv) $ briefcase publish web static

If pythonanywhere-briefcase-plugin is the only publication channel installed, it will be selected automatically. If you have multiple channels installed, specify the channel explicitly:

(venv) $ briefcase publish web static --channel pythonanywhere

Your app will be deployed to https://<username>.pythonanywhere.com/.

Configuration¶

Configuration options can be added to the tool.briefcase.app.<appname>.pythonanywhere section of your pyproject.toml file.

`username`¶

Your PythonAnywhere username. If not specified, the plugin will check the PYTHONANYWHERE_USERNAME environment variable, then fall back to the system username.

[tool.briefcase.app.myapp.pythonanywhere]
username = "mypauser"

`domain`¶

The domain name for your PythonAnywhere webapp. If not specified, defaults to <username>.pythonanywhere.com.

[tool.briefcase.app.myapp.pythonanywhere]
domain = "www.mycustomdomain.com"

`directory`¶

The remote directory on PythonAnywhere where the app files will be uploaded. If not specified, defaults to /home/<username>/<app_name>.

[tool.briefcase.app.myapp.pythonanywhere]
directory = "/home/mypauser/www"

Environment variables¶

The following environment variables are used by the plugin:

`API_TOKEN`¶

Required. Your PythonAnywhere API token. Obtain this from the API Token tab on your PythonAnywhere Account page.

`PYTHONANYWHERE_USERNAME`¶

Your PythonAnywhere username. Used as a fallback if username is not set in pyproject.toml.

`PYTHONANYWHERE_DOMAIN`¶

The PythonAnywhere domain suffix. Defaults to pythonanywhere.com. This is useful if you are using a regional PythonAnywhere instance (e.g., eu.pythonanywhere.com).

Contributing¶

Development requires uv.

Clone the repository and install the development dependencies:

$ git clone https://github.com/pythonanywhere/pythonanywhere-briefcase-plugin.git
$ cd pythonanywhere-briefcase-plugin
$ uv sync

Set up pre-commit hooks:

$ uvx pre-commit install

This will run linting (ruff), formatting, type checking (ty), and other checks automatically on every commit.

To run the test suite:

$ uv run pytest

To run pre-commit checks manually against all files:

$ uvx pre-commit run --all-files

How it works¶

When you run briefcase publish web static, the plugin:

Reads the packaged .zip distribution artifact produced by briefcase package web static.
Extracts the archive and uploads its contents to /home/<username>/<app_name>/ on PythonAnywhere.
Creates a new webapp (or updates the existing one) with a static file mapping from / to the uploaded directory.
Reloads the webapp so the changes take effect.