+++
title = "Standalone Python"
weight = 112

updated = 2023-07-07
aliases = ["/docs/python", "/docs/managed-search/elasticsearch-and-opensearch/using-your-cluster/connecting/python/standalone/", "/docs/using-your-cluster/connecting/python/"]

[extra]
weight = 1
nav_title = "Python"
+++

Setting up your Python app to use Bonsai Elasticsearch is quick and easy.

{% admonition(type="warning", title="Warning") %}
The official Elasticsearch Python client is not supported on Bonsai after version 7.13. This is due to a [change](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-py/releases/tag/v7.14.0)
introduced in the 7.14 release of the client. This change prevents the Python client from communicating with
open-sourced versions of Elasticsearch 7.x, as well as any version of OpenSearch.

If you are receiving an error stating "The client noticed that the server is not a supported distribution of
Elasticsearch," then you'll need to downgrade the client to 7.13 or lower.
{% end %}

Setting up your Python app to use Bonsai Elasticsearch is quick and easy. Just follow the steps below:

## Adding the Elasticsearch library

You'll need to add the `elasticsearch` library to your `Pipfile` file like so:

```bash
pipenv install elasticsearch elasticsearch-dsl
```

## Connecting to Bonsai

Bonsai requires basic authentication for all read/write requests. You'll need to configure the client so that it
includes the username and password when communicating with the cluster. The following code is a good starter for
integrating Bonsai Elasticsearch into your app:

```python
import os, base64, re, logging
from elasticsearch import Elasticsearch

# Log transport details (optional):
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)

# Parse the auth and host from env:
bonsai = os.environ['BONSAI_URL']
auth = re.search('https\:\/\/(.*)\@', bonsai).group(1).split(':')
host = bonsai.replace('https://%s:%s@' % (auth[0], auth[1]), '')

# Optional port
match = re.search('(:\d+)', host)
if match:
  p = match.group(0)
  host = host.replace(p, '')
  port = int(p.split(':')[1])
else:
  port=443

# Connect to cluster over SSL using auth for best security:
es_header = [{
  'host': host,
  'port': port,
  'use_ssl': True,
  'http_auth': (auth[0],auth[1])
}]

# Instantiate the new Elasticsearch connection:
es = Elasticsearch(es_header)

# Verify that Python can talk to Bonsai (optional):
es.ping()
```

Feel free to adapt that code to your particular app. Keep in mind that the core elements here can be moved around, but
really shouldn't be changed or further simplified.

For example, the snippet above parses out the authentication credentials from the `BONSAI_URL` environment variable.
This is so the username and password don't need to be hard coded into your app, where they could pose a security risk.
Also, the `host` , `port` and `use_ssl` parameters are important for SSL encryption to work properly. Simply using your
`BONSAI_URL` as the host will not work because of limitations in urllib. It needs to be a plain URL, with the
credentials passed to the client as a tuple.