Installation

Installation

Zenith is a batteries-included Python web framework that comes with everything you need to build production APIs.

Quick Install

pip install zenithweb

# Verify installation
zen --version

What’s Included

Zenith bundles commonly needed dependencies so you can start building immediately:

Database & ORM

• SQLAlchemy 2.0+ with async support
• SQLModel for type-safe models
• PostgreSQL driver (asyncpg)
• SQLite driver (aiosqlite)
• Alembic for migrations

Authentication & Security

• JWT libraries (PyJWT)
• Password hashing (Argon2 via pwdlib)
• Security headers middleware

Performance & Caching

• Redis client for caching
• JSON serialization (orjson, msgspec)
• Performance monitoring (prometheus-client)
• Async server (uvicorn)

Development Tools

• WebSocket support
• File upload support (python-multipart)
• Testing utilities
• CLI tools

Requirements

• Python 3.12-3.13
• pip or uv package manager
• PostgreSQL or SQLite for database (optional)
• Redis for caching and background tasks (optional)

Installation Methods

Using pip

The standard Python package manager:

# Install Zenith
pip install zenithweb

# Create your first project
zen new my-api
cd my-api

# Start development server
zen dev

Using uv (Recommended)

uv is a fast, modern Python package manager:

# Install uv if you haven't
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Install Zenith
uv add zenithweb

# Run with uv
uv run zen dev

Using Poetry

For projects that use Poetry for dependency management:

# Add to your project
poetry add zenithweb

# Run commands
poetry run zen dev

Installation Options

Method	Best For	Key Benefit
pip	Quick start, tutorials	Universal, works everywhere
uv	Modern development	10-100x faster installs
Poetry	Team projects	Lock files, reproducible builds
Docker	Microservices	Consistent environments

Optional Extras

Install additional features as needed:

# Development tools (testing, linting)
pip install "zenithweb[dev]"

# Performance benchmarking
pip install "zenithweb[benchmark]"

# Additional performance optimizations
pip install "zenithweb[performance]"

# HTTP/3 support
pip install "zenithweb[http3]"

# Advanced compression
pip install "zenithweb[compression]"

Environment Setup

Virtual Environment (Recommended)

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv

# Activate it
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install Zenith
pip install zenithweb

Environment Variables

Create a .env file for your configuration:

# Database
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@localhost/zenith_dev

# Redis (optional)
REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379

# Security
SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key-here

# Environment
DEBUG=true
ENVIRONMENT=development

Docker Setup

For containerized development:

docker-compose.yml

version: '3.8'

services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:15
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: zenith
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: zenith
      POSTGRES_DB: zenith_dev
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"
    volumes:
      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    ports:
      - "6379:6379"

volumes:
  postgres_data:

Start services:

docker-compose up -d

Verify Installation

After installation, verify everything works:

# Check CLI
zen --version

# Check Python import
python -c "import zenith; print(zenith.__version__)"

# Create test project
zen new test-project
cd test-project

# Run development server
zen dev

# Visit http://localhost:8000

IDE Setup

VS Code

Install recommended extensions for the best experience:

{
  "recommendations": [
    "ms-python.python",
    "ms-python.vscode-pylance",
    "ms-python.black-formatter",
    "charliermarsh.ruff",
    "tamasfe.even-better-toml"
  ]
}

PyCharm

1. Set Python interpreter to your virtual environment
2. Enable type checking in settings
3. Configure Black as the code formatter

Production Setup

# Install with production optimizations
pip install "zenithweb[performance]"

# Set production environment variables
export DATABASE_URL=postgresql://...
export REDIS_URL=redis://...
export SECRET_KEY=$(zen keygen)
export DEBUG=false

# Run with production server
zen serve --workers 4

Troubleshooting

Import Errors

• Ensure Python 3.12-3.13 is being used
• Check virtual environment is activated
• Reinstall: pip install --force-reinstall zenithweb

Command Not Found

• Check if zen is in your PATH
• Try python -m zenith.cli instead
• Ensure virtual environment is activated

Port Already in Use

• Stop other processes: lsof -i :8000
• Use different port: zen dev --port 8001

Next Steps

• Quick Start Guide - Build your first API
• Project Structure - Understand the layout
• Tutorial - Step-by-step learning