Python quickstart

Wire the Python SDK into your app and see your first flag fetch.

Wire the Python SDK into your app in three steps. This assumes you've already created a flag and copied a development SDK key — if not, start with the Quickstart.

1. Install

pip install switchbox-flags

The package is switchbox-flags; you import it as switchbox. It has zero runtime dependencies — nothing else is pulled in.

2. Create a client

Create one client when your app starts and reuse it. It fetches your config once on creation, then refreshes it in the background every 30 seconds.

from switchbox import Switchbox


client = Switchbox(sdk_key="your-sdk-key-from-dashboard")

3. Check a flag

if client.enabled("new_checkout", user={"user_id": "42"}):
    show_new_checkout()
else:
    show_old_checkout()

enabled() is an in-memory lookup against the cached config — no network call, sub-millisecond. The user dict is optional; pass it when a flag uses targeting rules or a percentage rollout (the user_id drives deterministic bucketing).

On shutdown, stop the background poller:

client.close()

Or use the context manager, which closes for you:

with Switchbox(sdk_key="your-sdk-key-from-dashboard") as client:
    if client.enabled("new_checkout", user={"user_id": "42"}):
        show_new_checkout()

See it connect

Run your app. Within a few seconds, the development environment in the dashboard shows a Connected ✓ badge — that's your client successfully fetching its config from the edge.

Now flip the flag off in the dashboard and Save. Your app picks up the change on its next poll (within ~30 seconds), with no redeploy.

Where to next