Install

SPOC needs Python 3.12 or newer. That's it — the core has zero dependencies.

pip install spoc

Or with uv:

uv add spoc

For an application you'll deploy, pin the major:

pip install "spoc>=1.0,<2"

That range is exactly what the stability contract promises against — see Upgrading for why nothing tighter is needed.

Check it worked

The spoc command line tool comes with the package:

spoc --version
spoc --help

Extras (only if you want them)

Everything the kernel does works on a bare install. A few optional features of spoc.formats and spoc.testing need one extra package each:

Extra	Install	What it unlocks
yaml	pip install "spoc[yaml]"	Reading and writing YAML files
xml	pip install "spoc[xml]"	Reading and writing XML files
toml	pip install "spoc[toml]"	Writing TOML (reading is built in)
query	pip install "spoc[query]"	JSONPath queries with formats.query
full	pip install "spoc[full]"	All of the above

You can't pick wrong

If you use a feature whose extra is missing, SPOC tells you exactly which one to install. Nothing fails silently.

Next: build your first project.