Development Guide
July 29, 2026 ยท View on GitHub
Setup
Make sure you have Python 3.10 - 3.14 (inclusive) installed, along with your choice of underlying Python driver (see minimum requirements).
Clone the AWS Advanced Python Driver repository:
git clone https://github.com/aws/aws-advanced-python-wrapper.git
You can now make changes in the repository.
Testing Overview
The AWS Advanced Python Driver uses the following tests to verify its correctness:
| Tests | Description |
|---|---|
| Unit tests | Tests for AWS Advanced Python Driver correctness. |
| Failover integration tests | Driver-specific tests for different reader and writer failover workflows using the Failover Connection Plugin. |
| Enhanced failure monitoring integration tests | Driver-specific tests for the enhanced failure monitoring functionality using the Host Monitoring Connection Plugin. |
| AWS authentication integration tests | Driver-specific tests for AWS authentication methods with the AWS Secrets Manager Plugin or the AWS IAM Authentication Plugin. |
Performance Tests
The AWS Advanced Python Driver has the following tests to verify its performance:
| Tests | Description |
|---|---|
| Connection plugin manager benchmarks | The benchmarks subproject measures the overhead from executing Python method calls with multiple connection plugins enabled. |
| Manually-triggered performance tests | The failover plugin performance tests and enhanced failure monitoring performance tests measure the plugins' performance under different configurations |
Running the Tests
Running the tests will also validate your environment is set up correctly.
Install Poetry:
Mac:
brew install poetry
Windows:
pipx install poetry
Run the tests:
poetry run python -m pytest ./tests/unit
Integration Tests
For more information on how to run the integration tests, please visit Integration Tests.
Sample Code
See the Examples directory for sample code.