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Using paker with PyInstaller

paker includes a PyInstaller hook that automatically bundles the C extension and all required submodules. This guide covers building standalone binaries that can load Python modules from encrypted paker bundles at runtime.

Basic usage

Install paker (not as editable — PyInstaller needs a proper install):

pip install paker
pip install pyinstaller

Build your script:

pyinstaller --onefile your_script.py

The paker hook (hook-paker.py) is registered via the pyinstaller40 entry point and is picked up automatically. It includes:

  • All paker submodules (paker._loaders, paker._crypto, etc.)
  • The _paker_crypto C extension (AES-256 decryption + memory scrubbing)
  • Standard library modules used by paker (pkgutil, uuid, hashlib, etc.)

What works in a PyInstaller binary

Feature Status
paker.loads() — load modules from dict/JSON Works
paker.load() — load from file Works
Encrypted modules (key=...) Works
C-level decryption (_paker_crypto) Works
paker.dumps() / paker.dump() Works (but requires source packages installed)
Platform-specific native loaders Works (tempfile/unlink on macOS, memfd on Linux)

Example: client that loads libraries from a server

This pattern is useful for deploying a lightweight client binary that receives its AI/ML libraries at runtime from a server.

Client script (client.py):

import json
import socket
import paker

def main():
    # Connect to server, receive encrypted bundle
    sock = socket.socket()
    sock.connect(("server.example.com", 9477))
    
    bundle_size = int(sock.recv(1024).decode().strip())
    bundle_data = b""
    while len(bundle_data) < bundle_size:
        bundle_data += sock.recv(65536)
    
    bundle = json.loads(bundle_data)
    key = bundle["key"].encode()
    
    # Load all libraries from memory — no pip install needed
    imp = paker.loads(bundle["modules"], key=key)
    
    # Now use libraries that were delivered over the wire
    import anthropic
    client = anthropic.Anthropic(api_key=bundle["api_key"])
    # ...

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Build it:

pip install paker
pyinstaller --onefile client.py

The resulting binary (dist/client) is ~10 MB and contains only paker + stdlib. All application libraries arrive encrypted at runtime.

Troubleshooting

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'paker'

paker must be installed as a regular package, not editable (pip install -e). PyInstaller cannot bundle editable installs:

pip install paker          # correct
pip install -e ./paker     # won't work with PyInstaller

ModuleNotFoundError for stdlib modules

If you see missing stdlib modules like uuid, pkgutil, or hashlib, add them as hidden imports:

pyinstaller --onefile --hidden-import=uuid --hidden-import=pkgutil your_script.py

This should be rare — the paker hook includes these automatically.

_paker_crypto not found

The C extension must be compiled for your platform. If you installed paker from a wheel, it should be included. If you installed from source:

pip install paker --no-binary :all:

This compiles the C extension during install. Requires a C compiler (gcc/clang/MSVC).

Binary size

Component Size
Minimal paker binary (stdlib + paker) ~10 MB
With anthropic SDK bundled at build time ~25 MB
SDK delivered at runtime (not in binary) ~10 MB binary + ~14 MB network