Installation

Get Serpentine installed in under a minute.

PyPI (recommended)

The simplest way to install Serpentine is via pip:

pip install serpentine-parser

Or with uv, the fast Python package manager:

uv tool install serpentine-parser

Installing via uv tool makes the serpentine command available globally without activating a virtual environment.

Optional extras

VCS integration ([git])

Enables the compare toolbar in the UI and the --compare flag in analyze / catalog. Requires a git repository.

pip install "serpentine-parser[git]"
# or
uv tool install "serpentine-parser[git]"

This installs pygit2, a Python binding for libgit2 that reads git history without requiring the git binary. When you run serpentine serve inside a git repo with this extra installed, the compare toolbar appears automatically.

From source

Prerequisites: Python 3.12+, Rust toolchain, Node.js 18+

git clone https://github.com/serpentine-parser/serpentine.git
cd serpentine

# 1. Build the frontend
cd frontend && npm install && npm run build && cd ..

# 2. Build the Rust extension and install the CLI
make install

This installs the serpentine CLI globally via uv tool, which you will need to install separately.

Verify the installation

serpentine --version

You should see the current version. If the command is not found, check that the uv tools directory is on your PATH.

Next steps

Once installed, head to Quick Start to analyze your first project.