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This page requires Python familiarity. PolyAI’s function runtime uses Python 3.12. Only the standard library and the packages listed below are available. You cannot install additional packages.

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Standard library

Within functions you have access to all of the Python 3.12 standard library, including modules like datetime, json, re, urllib, hashlib, and more.

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Notable features available in the runtime

If you’re coming from Python 3.9, the following features are available in your functions:
  • Structural pattern matching (match/case, introduced in Python 3.10) — a cleaner alternative to long if/elif chains for branching on values or structures. See the Python docs on match statements.
  • Parenthesized context managers (Python 3.10+) — you can use parentheses to split multiple context managers across lines: 
    with (
    open("input.json") as infile,
    open("output.json", "w") as outfile,
):
    ...
  • Exception Groups and except* (Python 3.11+) — handle multiple exceptions raised concurrently. Useful when your function makes parallel API calls. See PEP 654.

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Non-standard libraries

The following packages are pre-installed:
LibraryVersionDescription
requests2.32.5HTTP library for making API requests
decorator5.2.1Function decorator utilities
urllib32.3.0Low-level HTTP client
jsonschema4.25.1JSON schema validation
If you encounter unexpected behavior with a library, contact PolyAI support.
The requests library is the recommended way to make external API calls from your functions. See the requests quickstart guide for usage examples.
Last modified on March 22, 2026