watchfiles
High-performance file watching and code reload utility for Python development.
Dev workflow and config PyPI MIT
Used in agent projects
35
0.3% of 12,697 public repos built with AI coding agents
Rank in dev workflow and config
#50 of 88
by use in those projects
Downloads
78.4M
PyPI, last 7 days, watchfiles
GitHub stars
2,550
last push Sep 21, 2026
How watchfiles is used
watchfiles is a dependency in 35 of the 12,697 public GitHub projects set up for AI coding agents that we scanned (0.3%), #50 of 88 in dev workflow and config. The most used alternative there is dotenv. Projects that use it most often also use Uvicorn (100.0%), FastAPI (97.1%), Pydantic (97.1%).
Often used with watchfiles
| Uvicorn | 100.0% of watchfiles projects · 23.3× more than average |
|---|---|
| FastAPI | 97.1% of watchfiles projects · 23.0× more than average |
| Pydantic | 97.1% of watchfiles projects · 19.0× more than average |
| python-dotenv | 97.1% of watchfiles projects · 14.9× more than average |
| PyYAML | 94.3% of watchfiles projects · 31.1× more than average |
| websockets | 94.3% of watchfiles projects · 41.9× more than average |
| Click | 88.6% of watchfiles projects · 50.4× more than average |
| AnyIO | 85.7% of watchfiles projects · 58.5× more than average |
By coding agent
| GitHub Copilot | 0.5% of projects set up for it |
|---|---|
| Claude Code | 0.4% of projects set up for it |
| Cursor | 0.4% of projects set up for it |
Share of public repos configured for each agent that list watchfiles as a dependency.
Install
| Package | pip install watchfiles |
|---|---|
| Main stacks | Python (32), Next.js (2), Other (1) |
| Example projects | XargonWan/Synthetic_Heart, leonardsellem/readwise-vector-db, ManojINaik/manimAnimationAgent, daniel-ospina/tortoise |
Alternatives to watchfiles
| Tool | Used in agent projects | Downloads / wk | GitHub stars | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| dotenv npm Load environment variables from .env files into process.env. |
2,001 (15.8%) | 189M | 20.5K | BSD-2-Clause |
| python-dotenv pypi Load environment variables from .env files in Python applications. |
828 (6.5%) | 156M | 8,898 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Husky npm Modern Git hooks manager for running tasks on git events. |
797 (6.3%) | 36.2M | 35.3K | MIT |
| lint-staged npm Run linters on git staged files to catch issues before commit. |
591 (4.7%) | 29.5M | 14.7K | MIT |
| concurrently npm Run multiple npm scripts concurrently for efficient development workflows. |
572 (4.5%) | 22.2M | 7,856 | MIT |
| cross-env npm Set environment variables across Windows, Mac and Linux in npm scripts. |
265 (2.1%) | 25.8M | 6,521 | MIT |
| Pydantic Settings pypi Settings management and configuration from environment variables using Pydantic. |
251 (2.0%) | 96.8M | 1,475 | — |
| Rich pypi Python library for rich text and beautiful formatting in terminal output. |
243 (1.9%) | 117M | 57.5K | MIT |