Static analysis tools and IDE usually struggle to understand python binary extensions.
pybind11-stubgen generates stubs for python extensions to make them less opaque.
While the CLI tool includes tweaks to target modules compiled specifically with pybind11 but it should work well with modules built with other libraries.
# Install
pip install pybind11-stubgen
# Generate stubs for numpy
pybind11-stubgen numpypybind11-stubgen [-h]
[-o OUTPUT_DIR]
[--root-suffix ROOT_SUFFIX]
[--ignore-invalid-expressions REGEX]
[--ignore-invalid-identifiers REGEX]
[--ignore-unresolved-names REGEX]
[--ignore-all-errors]
[--enum-class-locations REGEX:LOC]
[--numpy-array-wrap-with-annotated|
--numpy-array-use-type-var|
--numpy-array-remove-parameters]
[--print-invalid-expressions-as-is]
[--print-safe-value-reprs REGEX]
[--exit-code]
[--stub-extension EXT]
MODULE_NAME
During development, you may need to update the reference stubs in tests/stubs. This can be done locally using a convenience tox configuration. Ensure that all Python interpreters required by the test suite are available in your environment. For example, you can install them via uv:
uv python install 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13To regenerate the reference stubs run:
uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv tool install tox --with tox-uv
uv run tox