Python API¶

The Python surface is a single stable-ABI extension, wowlib, built with nanobind and bound automatically by welder from the annotated C++ headers. These pages are generated by mkdocstrings from the extension's .pyi stub tree — the same typed surface your editor and mypy see — so signatures, overloads and docstrings here match what you import.

Package layout¶

Module	Contents
`wowlib`	Core vocabulary: `ClientVersion`, `Expansion`, `Locale`, file keys, exceptions
`wowlib.versions`	One `ClientVersion` constant per finished expansion (`versions.wotlk`, …)
`wowlib.fs`	The filesystem gateway over MPQ / CASC storages
`wowlib.formats`	The chunk framework's shared payload types (`StringBlock`, `ChunkBlob`) and the format subpackages
`wowlib.formats.common`	Shared wire primitives — vectors, matrices, colours, planes
`wowlib.formats.wmo`	The WMO format — root & group, per-expansion classes
`wowlib.formats.m2`	The M2 model format — body, skins, skeletons and satellites
`wowlib.formats.wdt`	The WDT map description — main file + `_occ`/`_lgt`/`_fogs`/`_mpv` satellites
`wowlib.formats.wdl`	The WDL low-resolution heightmap
`wowlib.formats.adt`	The ADT terrain tile — heights, textures, liquids, placements, unified across split files
`wowlib.formats.blp`	The BLP texture format — decode to/encode from RGBA
`wowlib.db`	Client databases (`DBFilesClient/`) — `LocString`, encryption vocabulary
`wowlib.db.tables`	Typed per-era table modules (`tables.wotlk.Map()`, … one submodule per expansion)
containers	Opaque `Vector*` types — by-reference, zero-copy NumPy

Types are shipped

wowlib installs a PEP 561 wowlib-stubs package, so mypy and IDEs pick up the full typed surface with no extra configuration.

Installing

pip install wowlib-py

The distribution is wowlib-py; the module you import is wowlib. They differ because the wowlib name on PyPI belongs to an unrelated project abandoned in 2018. Wheels are stable-ABI (CPython ≥ 3.13) and carry the compiled extension, so no C++ toolchain is needed to install.