PyNaCl
Python binding to NaCl cryptography library for secure encryption and signing.
Auth and security libraries PyPI Apache-2.0
Used in agent projects
58
0.5% of 12,697 public repos built with AI coding agents
Rank in auth and security libraries
#19 of 47
by use in those projects
Downloads
38.9M
PyPI, last 7 days, pynacl
GitHub stars
1,210
last push Oct 5, 2026
How PyNaCl is used
PyNaCl is a dependency in 58 of the 12,697 public GitHub projects set up for AI coding agents that we scanned (0.5%), #19 of 47 in auth and security libraries. The most used alternative there is NextAuth.js. Projects that use it most often also use solders (84.5%), Requests (79.3%), base58 (74.1%).
Often used with PyNaCl
| solders | 84.5% of PyNaCl projects · 25.4× more than average |
|---|---|
| Requests | 79.3% of PyNaCl projects · 14.9× more than average |
| base58 | 74.1% of PyNaCl projects · 38.9× more than average |
| python-dotenv | 67.2% of PyNaCl projects · 10.3× more than average |
| aiohttp | 63.8% of PyNaCl projects · 27.5× more than average |
| solana-py | 60.3% of PyNaCl projects · 22.4× more than average |
| NumPy | 51.7% of PyNaCl projects · 13.5× more than average |
| websockets | 51.7% of PyNaCl projects · 23.0× more than average |
By coding agent
| Claude Code | 0.3% of projects set up for it |
|---|
Share of public repos configured for each agent that list PyNaCl as a dependency.
Install
| Package | pip install pynacl |
|---|---|
| Main stacks | Python (56), Other (1), Next.js (1) |
| Example projects | Josh-XT/AGiXT, solana-developers/solana-cookbook, kr8tiv-ai/Jarvis, fireblocks/fireblocks-key-recovery-tool, everlastingsong/whirlpool-essentials |
Alternatives to PyNaCl
| Tool | Used in agent projects | Downloads / wk | GitHub stars | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NextAuth.js npm Complete open-source authentication solution designed for Next.js applications. |
266 (2.1%) | 6.7M | 28.4K | ISC |
| bcryptjs npm Pure JavaScript bcrypt implementation for secure password hashing without dependencies. |
256 (2.0%) | 14.7M | 3,797 | BSD-3-Clause |
| jsonwebtoken npm Create, verify and decode JSON Web Tokens for authentication and secure data transmission. |
241 (1.9%) | 59.3M | 18.2K | MIT |
| cryptography pypi Python library providing cryptographic recipes and primitives for secure applications. |
213 (1.7%) | 281M | 7,803 | — |
| jose npm Comprehensive JWT and JWK handling for Node.js and web runtimes. |
141 (1.1%) | 151M | 7,824 | MIT |
| PyJWT pypi Python library for encoding and decoding JSON Web Tokens. |
128 (1.0%) | 154M | 5,714 | — |
| Better Auth npm Comprehensive authentication framework for TypeScript with multiple strategies. |
126 (1.0%) | 11.4M | 30.2K | MIT |
| Helmet npm Express middleware that sets HTTP security headers to prevent vulnerabilities. |
125 (1.0%) | 16.2M | 10.7K | MIT |