Pico-Boot Documentation¶

Welcome to the official documentation for Pico-Boot, the zero-configuration bootstrap layer for the Pico ecosystem.

What is Pico-Boot?¶

Pico-Boot is a thin orchestration layer that wraps pico-ioc to provide:

Automatic plugin discovery via Python entry points
Zero-configuration initialization for multi-package applications
Seamless integration with the Pico ecosystem

Think of it as the "Spring Boot" to pico-ioc's "Spring Framework" - it eliminates boilerplate and provides sensible defaults.

Quick Links¶

Document	Description
Getting Started	Your first Pico-Boot application
Configuration	Configuration file loading
Plugins Overview	How plugin discovery works
Creating Plugins	Build your own Pico-Boot plugin
Architecture	Internal design and decisions
API Reference	Complete API documentation
Ecosystem	Compatible packages
FAQ	Frequently asked questions
Troubleshooting	Common issues and solutions

Installation¶

pip install pico-boot

This automatically installs pico-ioc as a dependency.

Minimal Example¶

from pico_ioc import component
from pico_boot import init

@component
class GreetingService:
    def greet(self, name: str) -> str:
        return f"Hello, {name}!"

# Initialize container with auto-discovery
container = init(modules=[__name__])

# Use your services
service = container.get(GreetingService)
print(service.greet("World"))

# Clean shutdown
container.shutdown()

When to Use Pico-Boot¶

Scenario	Recommendation
Simple app, few dependencies	Use `pico-ioc` directly
Multiple pico-* integrations	Use `pico-boot`
Library/package development	Use `pico-ioc` directly
Application development	Use `pico-boot`
Want auto-discovery	Use `pico-boot`
Need fine-grained control	Use `pico-ioc` directly

Key Concepts¶

1. Drop-in Replacement¶

pico_boot.init() is a drop-in replacement for pico_ioc.init():

# Before (pico-ioc)
from pico_ioc import init
container = init(modules=["myapp"])

# After (pico-boot)
from pico_boot import init
container = init(modules=["myapp"])  # Same API!

2. Automatic Plugin Discovery¶

When you install a Pico ecosystem package, it's automatically discovered:

pip install pico-fastapi pico-sqlalchemy

from pico_boot import init

# Both pico-fastapi and pico-sqlalchemy are loaded automatically!
container = init(modules=["myapp"])

3. Entry Point Convention¶

Plugins register via the pico_boot.modules entry point group:

# pyproject.toml
[project.entry-points."pico_boot.modules"]
my_plugin = "my_plugin"

Environment Variables¶

Variable	Default	Description
`PICO_BOOT_AUTO_PLUGINS`	`true`	Enable/disable plugin auto-discovery