contextman

contextman is a Python library designed to simplify the management of application-wide context. It provides a thread-local mechanism for storing and accessing data that is relevant across different parts of an application without requiring explicit passing of arguments through function calls. This can be particularly useful in scenarios like web request handling, asynchronous programming, or distributed systems where maintaining a consistent state or tracking information is crucial.

The core concept behind contextman is the use of a context manager, typically employed with Python's `with` statement. When a `contextman` context is entered, a new context is created, and any data pushed into this context is associated with the current execution thread or asynchronous task. As the execution proceeds within the context, this data remains accessible. When the context is exited, the associated data is automatically cleaned up, preventing unintended side effects or memory leaks.

Key features of contextman include the ability to push and pop data onto the context stack, retrieve the current context, and handle nested contexts. It aims to offer a cleaner alternative to global variables or passing large context objects around. The library is designed to be lightweight and integrate seamlessly into existing Python projects. Developers can leverage contextman to manage things like user authentication information, request IDs for logging, or configuration settings that vary per request.