PythonBox — Lightweight Python IDE for Windows

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Focused editor with PDB debugging, code folding, linting, Git status, and VS Code/PyCharm handoff.

PythonBox is a local-first Python IDE for Windows developers who want a focused editor with PySide6, PDB debugging, code folding, linting, Git status, and optional handoff to VS Code or PyCharm.

Start here

If you want to...	Start with
Try the IDE from source	python PythonBox_v8.py
Build a local Windows EXE	build_exe.bat
Check the regression suite	python -m pytest
Understand the platform boundary	PORTIERUNGSPLAN.md
Give an LLM or crawler the repo context	llms.txt

Why PythonBox?

PythonBox is built for small Python scripts, local automation tools, learning workflows, and LLM-assisted coding sessions where a full IDE can feel too heavy. It keeps the core loop in one desktop window: open a file, edit Python, run it with the current interpreter, inspect output, debug with breakpoints, and check Git changes before handing the file to a larger IDE when needed.

Screenshot

Features

Editor

• Python syntax highlighting
• Auto-completion for keywords, builtins, and snippets
• Code folding for classes and functions
• Minimap and bracket matching
• Multi-file tabbed editing

Debugging and Development

• Execution via current Python interpreter (sys.executable)
• PDB debugger inside the output panel
• Line number breakpoint toggling
• Debug toolbar with Step In, Step Over, and Step Out
• Linter integration for Pylint and Flake8 (with AST fallback)
• Git status, diff, and line-level modification markers
• Combined Git status codes formatted readably; replaced diff lines marked as modified
• Qt6-compatible editor metrics and F5 run via debug output panel
• Save As preserves original path when dialog is cancelled
• Minimap toggle synchronized between View menu and Settings dialog
• Snippet library and portable editor settings import/export via JSON (pythonbox-snippets-v1.json, pythonbox-settings-v1.json)

Windows Packaging

• PythonBox.ico used as app and window icon when present
• build_exe.bat builds a compact Windows executable via PyInstaller
• START_PythonBox_v8.bat launches the app directly from checkout

Platform Strategy

• Windows remains the primary desktop platform
• macOS and Linux serve as source-smoke targets from the same PySide6 codebase
• Android, iOS, and Web/PWA are explicitly out of scope because PythonBox relies on local files, local interpreters, PDB, linters, and Git

Installation

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• PySide6 6.5+
• Optional: Git, Pylint, Flake8, VS Code, PyCharm

Run from source

git clone https://github.com/dev-bricks/pythonbox.git
cd pythonbox
pip install -r requirements.txt
python PythonBox_v8.py

On Windows, START_PythonBox_v8.bat can be launched via double click.

Optionally open a file or set a theme on startup:

python PythonBox_v8.py --open demo.py
python PythonBox_v8.py demo.py
python PythonBox_v8.py --theme dracula --open demo.py

Headless modes for local automation and linter pipelines:

python PythonBox_v8.py --run demo.py
python PythonBox_v8.py --lint demo.py

Build Windows EXE

pip install pyinstaller
build_exe.bat

The resulting build is placed in dist/. Build artifacts and local releases are intentionally excluded from the Git repository.

Tests

The test suite includes 92 unit and regression tests (Pytest & Unittest). It verifies Qt6 API compatibility, F5 execution routing, PDB debugger interaction, linter fallbacks, Git diff/status handling, JSON import/export, headless CLI flags (--run, --lint), and offscreen main window construction.

python -m pytest

GitHub Actions executes these checks on Windows for Python 3.10 through 3.12.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+F	Find
Ctrl+H	Replace
Ctrl+G	Go to line
Ctrl+/	Toggle comment
F5	Run
F9	Toggle breakpoint
F10	Step Over
F11	Step Into

Privacy

PythonBox operates 100% locally. It contains no telemetry, no cloud sync, and no built-in external API calls. Files are opened, saved, or executed only when explicitly triggered by user action.

Repository Hygiene

Internal task lists, test locks, local build artifacts, release folders, virtual environments, databases, secrets, and IDE/OS metadata are untracked. Details are specified in .gitignore.

Roadmap

PythonBox remains a lightweight Python IDE. Multi-language support is developed separately under CodeBox.

Discovery keywords

python ide, lightweight python editor, pyside6 code editor, windows python ide, local-first developer tool, pdb debugger gui, python linting, code folding, git diff editor, vs code handoff, pycharm handoff, offline python editor

License

MIT License, see LICENSE.

Liability

This project is provided as free open source software. Use it at your own risk. There is no maintenance commitment, availability guarantee, or warranty of fitness for a particular purpose. The MIT license disclaimer applies.