Installation
Python 3.10–3.14 are supported. We recommend Python 3.11.
The [all] extra installs every optional data-source dependency. To keep the install small, replace it with just the extras you need.
uv (recommended)
The preferred way to install is uv:
uv tool install --python python3.11 --upgrade 'datacontract-cli[all]'
datacontract --version
uvx (run without installing)
If you have uv installed, you can run the CLI directly without installing it:
uvx --from 'datacontract-cli[all]' datacontract --version
pip
python3 -m pip install 'datacontract-cli[all]'
datacontract --version
pip with venv
Typically it's better to install into a virtual environment for your project:
cd my-project
python3.11 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install 'datacontract-cli[all]'
datacontract --version
pipx
pipx installs into an isolated environment:
pipx install 'datacontract-cli[all]'
datacontract --version
Docker
Use the Docker image to run the CLI without a local Python install — convenient for CI/CD:
docker pull datacontract/cli
docker run --rm -v "${PWD}:/home/datacontract" datacontract/cli
Create an alias to make it easier to use:
alias datacontract='docker run --rm -v "${PWD}:/home/datacontract" datacontract/cli:latest'
The output of Docker command line messages is limited to 80 columns and may include line breaks. Don't pipe Docker output to files if you want to export code — use the --output option instead.
The image is also mirrored to Amazon ECR Public:
docker pull public.ecr.aws/s4e5k7s9/datacontract-cli
Verifying the image
Released images are signed with cosign keyless signing, using the GitHub Actions OIDC identity of the release workflow. There is no public key to distribute — verification checks that the image was built and signed by that workflow, in this repository, from a release tag.
Install cosign v2.6.3 or later (v3 or later recommended), then:
cosign verify datacontract/cli:latest \
--certificate-identity-regexp '^https://github\.com/datacontract/datacontract-cli/\.github/workflows/release\.yaml@refs/tags/v' \
--certificate-oidc-issuer https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com
Both --certificate-identity-regexp and --certificate-oidc-issuer are required. Without them, cosign verify accepts any valid Sigstore signature — including one produced by someone else.
The same command works for the ECR mirror, which carries the signature and attestations along with the image:
cosign verify public.ecr.aws/s4e5k7s9/datacontract-cli:latest \
--certificate-identity-regexp '^https://github\.com/datacontract/datacontract-cli/\.github/workflows/release\.yaml@refs/tags/v' \
--certificate-oidc-issuer https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com
Each image also ships an SBOM and SLSA provenance attestation, which you can inspect with:
docker buildx imagetools inspect datacontract/cli:latest --format '{{ json .SBOM }}'
docker buildx imagetools inspect datacontract/cli:latest --format '{{ json .Provenance }}'
Signatures are attached to images released after version 1.1.0. Older tags, 1.1.0 included, are unsigned.
Optional dependencies (extras)
The CLI defines several optional dependencies (extras) for specific server types. With all, every server dependency except hana is included.
uv tool install --python python3.11 --upgrade 'datacontract-cli[all]'
Available extras:
| Dependency | Installation command |
|---|---|
| API (run as web server) | pip install datacontract-cli[api] |
| Amazon Athena | pip install datacontract-cli[athena] |
| Avro | pip install datacontract-cli[avro] |
| Azure | pip install datacontract-cli[azure] |
| Google BigQuery | pip install datacontract-cli[bigquery] |
| ClickHouse | pip install datacontract-cli[clickhouse] |
| Databricks | pip install datacontract-cli[databricks] (also inside a Databricks Runtime, using the cluster's own Spark session — see Databricks Notebooks and Jobs) |
| DataFrame (Spark) | pip install datacontract-cli[dataframe] (PySpark not included — you supply the Spark session) |
| DBML | pip install datacontract-cli[dbml] |
| DuckDB (local file, CSV import and API response testing) | pip install datacontract-cli[duckdb] |
| Exasol | pip install datacontract-cli[exasol] |
| Excel (import / export) | pip install datacontract-cli[excel] |
| Excel workbooks (testing) | pip install datacontract-cli[xlsx] |
| GCS | pip install datacontract-cli[gcs] |
| Apache Hive | pip install datacontract-cli[hive] |
| SAP HANA / Datasphere | pip install datacontract-cli[hana] (not part of all: hdbcli is proprietary) |
| Apache Iceberg (schema import and export, REST catalog testing) | pip install datacontract-cli[iceberg] |
| Impala | pip install datacontract-cli[impala] |
| Kafka | pip install datacontract-cli[kafka] |
| MySQL | pip install datacontract-cli[mysql] |
| Oracle | pip install datacontract-cli[oracle] |
| Parquet | pip install datacontract-cli[parquet] |
| PostgreSQL | pip install datacontract-cli[postgres] |
| Protobuf | pip install datacontract-cli[protobuf] |
| RDF | pip install datacontract-cli[rdf] |
| Amazon Redshift | pip install datacontract-cli[redshift] |
| S3 | pip install datacontract-cli[s3] |
| Snowflake | pip install datacontract-cli[snowflake] |
| Microsoft SQL Server | pip install datacontract-cli[sqlserver] |
| Trino | pip install datacontract-cli[trino] |
| XML Schema (import) | pip install datacontract-cli[xml] |
Each data source lists the extra it needs.