CircuitPython

More reasons to use CircuitPython

Quick and Easy

Create a file, edit your code, save the file, and it runs immediately. There is no compiling or uploading needed.

Beginner Friendly

CircuitPython is designed with education in mind. It's an easy way to start learning how to code and you get immediate feedback from the board.

Easy Code Updates

Since your code lives on the disk drive, you can edit it whenever you like. You can even keep multiple files around for easy experimentation.

Serial Console + REPL

These features allow for live feedback from your code and interactive programming.

File Storage

The internal storage for CircuitPython makes it great for data-logging, playing audio clips, and otherwise interacting with files.

Strong Hardware Support

There are many libraries and drivers for sensors, breakout boards and other external components.

CircuitPython is based on Python

Python is the fastest growing programming language. It's taught in schools and universities. It's a high-level programming language which means it's designed to be easier to read, write and maintain. It supports modules and packages which means it's easy to reuse your code for other projects. It has a built-in interpreter which means there are no extra steps, like compiling, to get your code to work. And of course, Python is Open Source Software which means it's free for anyone to use, modify or improve upon.

CircuitPython adds hardware support to all of these amazing features. If you already have Python knowledge, you can easily apply that to using CircuitPython. If you have no previous experience, it's really simple to get started!

CircuitPython libraries on single board computers

Most CircuitPython libraries also work on single board computers (SBCs), such as the Raspberry Pi. Linux runs "desktop" Python (commonly known as CPython) instead of CircuitPython. Our CPython Blinka library provides CircuitPython's low-level hardware APIs, such as `digitalio`.

Blinka and CircuitPython libraries are just a `pip install` away.

Thanks

CircuitPython wouldn't exist without the awesome work of Damien George and the MicroPython community. They did the hard work to reimplement Python on microcontrollers and continue to push the boundaries of what is possible.

Thank you to Adafruit for continuing to support CircuitPython's beginner-focused development. Adafruit supports MicroPython with code contributions and financially via GitHub sponsorship AND directly to MicroPython.

Lastly, thank you to the CircuitPython community members who have spent time testing, triaging, fixing and enhancing CircuitPython, its libraries and its documentation. Together we're all making something incredible.