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About Ravyn

Ravyn is a modern, high-performance Python web framework designed for building scalable APIs and web applications with ease.

What is Ravyn?

Ravyn is an ASGI framework that combines the power of async Python with developer-friendly features. Built on top of Lilya and leveraging Pydantic for data validation, Ravyn provides everything you need to build production-ready applications.

Key Features

✨ Async-First - Built on ASGI for high concurrency

✨ Type Safety - Full type hints and Pydantic integration

✨ Auto Documentation - OpenAPI docs generated automatically

✨ Dependency Injection - Clean, testable code architecture

✨ Flexible Routing - Powerful routing with includes and gateways

✨ Built-in Security - Authentication, permissions, CSRF protection

✨ Database Ready - Edgy ORM and Mongoz support

✨ Developer Experience - Clear errors, great tooling

Philosophy

Simple Things Should Be Simple

from ravyn import Ravyn, get

@get("/hello")
def hello(name: str) -> dict:
    return {"message": f"Hello, {name}!"}

app = Ravyn()
app.add_route(hello)

That's it. No boilerplate, no complexity.

Complex Things Should Be Possible

When you need advanced features, Ravyn has you covered:

  • Dependency injection
  • Middleware layers
  • Custom interceptors
  • WebSocket support
  • Background tasks
  • Event-driven architecture

Production Ready

Ravyn is designed for real-world applications:

  • High performance
  • Comprehensive testing
  • Security best practices
  • Scalable architecture
  • Clear documentation

Why Ravyn?

Coming from Flask?

Ravyn gives you:

  • Async support - Handle thousands of concurrent connections
  • Type safety - Catch errors before runtime
  • Auto docs - OpenAPI documentation out of the box
  • Modern patterns - Dependency injection, middleware

Coming from FastAPI?

Ravyn offers:

  • More flexibility - Multiple routing patterns
  • Built-in features - Permissions, interceptors, schedulers
  • Better organization - Controllers, includes, child apps
  • Rich ecosystem - Edgy ORM, Mongoz, extensions

Coming from Django?

You'll appreciate:

  • Async performance - Much faster for I/O operations
  • Simplicity - Less magic, more explicit
  • Modern Python - Async/await, type hints
  • Lightweight - Start small, scale as needed

Technology Stack

Core Technologies

  • Python 3.8+ - Modern Python features
  • ASGI - Async server gateway interface
  • Lilya - ASGI toolkit foundation
  • Pydantic - Data validation and serialization
  • Starlette - Inspiration and compatibility

Optional Integrations

  • Edgy - Async ORM for SQL databases
  • Mongoz - MongoDB ODM
  • Asyncz - Task scheduling
  • MsgSpec - High-performance serialization

History

The Esmerald Era

Ravyn was originally created as Esmerald by Tiago Silva. Esmerald grew into a powerful framework with a dedicated community and extensive features.

The Rebrand

In 2025, Esmerald was rebranded to Ravyn to align with the growing Dymmond ecosystem. The rebrand brought:

  • Fresh identity
  • Clearer positioning
  • Better ecosystem alignment
  • Same great features

See the Migration Guide for upgrading from Esmerald.

Design Principles

1. Developer Experience First

Every API is designed to be intuitive and discoverable. Clear error messages, comprehensive documentation, and helpful tooling.

2. Performance Matters

Ravyn is built for speed without sacrificing developer experience. Async-first architecture, efficient routing, and optimized internals.

3. Flexibility Over Magic

Explicit is better than implicit. Ravyn gives you powerful tools but lets you decide how to use them.

4. Production Ready

Security, testing, and scalability are built-in, not afterthoughts.

Use Cases

Perfect For:

  • REST APIs - Build fast, scalable APIs

  • Microservices - Lightweight and modular

  • Real-time Apps - WebSocket support

  • Data Pipelines - Async processing

  • API Gateways - Proxy and routing

Also Great For:

  • GraphQL APIs
  • Server-side rendering
  • Background job processing
  • Event-driven systems
  • Legacy app integration (WSGI support)

Community

Get Involved

Contribute

We welcome contributions of all kinds:

  • Code contributions
  • Documentation improvements
  • Bug reports
  • Feature suggestions

See our Contributing Guide to get started.

License

Ravyn is released under the MIT License. Free for personal and commercial use.

Credits

Creator

Tiago Silva (@tarsil) - Creator and lead maintainer - Vision and direction

Built On

  • Lilya - ASGI toolkit
  • Pydantic - Data validation
  • Starlette - Inspiration

Community

Thank you to all our contributors who make Ravyn better every day.

Next Steps

Ready to get started?

Welcome to Ravyn. Let's build something amazing together.