Bucket Helper

🇫🇷 · 🇬🇧

Bucket Helper belongs to a collection of libraries called AI Helpers developed for building Artificial Intelligence.

Utility functions for AWS S3 and any S3-compatible object storage — MinIO, Backblaze B2 S3 API, DigitalOcean Spaces, Cloudflare R2, Wasabi, and friends. Built on boto3. Same shape as sftp-helper: a credentials() loader, the usual CRUD (upload / download / delete / exists / list_prefix), and a remote_tempfile context manager for stage-and-share flows.

🌍 AI Helpers

Installation

Prerequisites — Python 3.10–3.13 and git, cross-platform:

• 🍎 macOS (Homebrew): brew install python git
• 🐧 Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y python3 python3-pip git
• 🪟 Windows (PowerShell): winget install Python.Python.3.12 Git.Git

Then install the package:

pip install --force-reinstall --no-cache-dir git+https://github.com/warith-harchaoui/bucket-helper.git@v0.2.2

Optional extras — pick what you need:

# argparse CLI is always available. Add the click twin:
pip install 'bucket-helper[cli] @ git+https://github.com/warith-harchaoui/bucket-helper.git@v0.2.2'

# HTTP server (FastAPI + uvicorn + python-multipart):
pip install 'bucket-helper[api] @ git+https://github.com/warith-harchaoui/bucket-helper.git@v0.2.2'

# MCP tools (fastapi-mcp) — requires the [api] plumbing:
pip install 'bucket-helper[api,mcp] @ git+https://github.com/warith-harchaoui/bucket-helper.git@v0.2.2'

Configuration

A ready-to-fill template is committed at s3_config.json.example. Copy it to s3_config.json and edit in place — real *config.json files are gitignored so you cannot accidentally commit secrets:

cp s3_config.json.example s3_config.json
# then edit s3_config.json with your AWS / MinIO / R2 / B2 credentials

You may also write a s3_config.yaml, use a .env, or set environment variables — bucket-helper falls back in that order via os_helper.get_config. Required keys:

{
  "s3_access_key": "AKIA...",
  "s3_secret_key": "...",
  "s3_bucket":     "my-bucket",
  "s3_https":      "https://my-bucket.s3.eu-west-3.amazonaws.com"
}

Optional keys:

Key	Default	Notes
s3_region	"us-east-1"	AWS region; mostly cosmetic for MinIO / R2
s3_endpoint_url	empty (= AWS S3)	Set this for S3-compatible backends — see table below
s3_prefix	empty	Default key prefix added by upload(...) when no destination is given
s3_use_path_style	"false"	Force path-style addressing (endpoint/bucket/key instead of bucket.endpoint/key). Typical for MinIO with custom domains.
s3_verify_ssl	"true"	Disable only for dev MinIO with self-signed certs

Endpoint URLs for common S3-compatible storage

Set s3_endpoint_url to:

Provider	Endpoint
AWS S3	leave empty / unset
MinIO	http://minio.example.com:9000 (or https://... with TLS)
DigitalOcean Spaces	https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com (region in subdomain)
Cloudflare R2	https://<account_id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com
Backblaze B2 (S3 API)	https://s3.<region>.backblazeb2.com
Wasabi	https://s3.<region>.wasabisys.com

Usage

For the full catalog of recipes (uploads / downloads / listings, S3-compatible endpoints — MinIO / R2 / B2 / Spaces / Wasabi, temporary remote keys with auto-cleanup, mirroring with sftp-helper), see 📋 EXAMPLES.md.

import bucket_helper as bh

# Load creds — JSON / YAML / env / .env (auto-fallback in that order)
cred = bh.credentials("path/to/s3_config.json")

# Upload a local file
uri = bh.upload("local.txt", cred, "folder/uploaded.txt")
# uri == "s3://my-bucket/folder/uploaded.txt"

assert bh.exists(uri, cred)

# Download
bh.download(uri, "downloaded.txt", cred)

# List
for key in bh.list_prefix("folder/", cred):
    print(key)

# Delete
bh.delete(uri, cred)

MinIO example

cred = {
    "s3_access_key":      "minioadmin",
    "s3_secret_key":      "minioadmin",
    "s3_bucket":          "uploads",
    "s3_https":           "http://minio.example.com:9000/uploads",
    "s3_endpoint_url":    "http://minio.example.com:9000",
    "s3_use_path_style":  "true",
    "s3_region":          "us-east-1",  # MinIO accepts any region string
}

bh.make_bucket("uploads", cred)
bh.upload("file.bin", cred, "file.bin")

Stage-and-share with remote_tempfile

Drop a generated file at a unique random key, hand the public URL to a downstream worker / webhook, and the object is deleted on block exit (even if the body raises):

import bucket_helper as bh
import requests

cred = bh.credentials("path/to/s3_config.json")

with bh.remote_tempfile(cred, ext="json", prefix="runs") as (s3_addr, public_url):
    bh.upload("payload.json", cred, s3_addr, content_type="application/json")
    # Hand the URL to something that fetches it once.
    requests.post("https://hook.example.com/process", json={"input_url": public_url}).raise_for_status()
# Object is gone here, no manual cleanup.

Multi-surface exposure

Every public function in the library is also exposed as:

• argparse CLI — bucket-helper <subcommand> (installed by default).
• click CLI — bucket-helper-click <subcommand> (install [cli] extra).
• FastAPI HTTP — uvicorn bucket_helper.api:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 (install [api] extra).
• MCP tools — bucket-helper-mcp (install [api,mcp] extras).

Both CLIs share the same subcommand names and flags — pick your favourite.

CLI examples

# argparse CLI (always available)
bucket-helper upload      --config s3_config.json --input local.txt --key folder/uploaded.txt
bucket-helper exists      --config s3_config.json --key folder/uploaded.txt
bucket-helper download    --config s3_config.json --key folder/uploaded.txt --output back.txt
bucket-helper list        --config s3_config.json --prefix folder/
bucket-helper delete      --config s3_config.json --key folder/uploaded.txt
bucket-helper make-bucket --config s3_config.json --bucket new-bucket
bucket-helper tempfile    --config s3_config.json --ext json --prefix runs
bucket-helper strip-path  --config s3_config.json --address s3://my-bucket/path/to/obj

# click CLI — same verbs, same flags
bucket-helper-click upload --config s3_config.json --input local.txt --key folder/uploaded.txt

HTTP + MCP server

# Serve HTTP + MCP (default credentials picked up from BUCKET_HELPER_CONFIG)
BUCKET_HELPER_CONFIG=$PWD/s3_config.json bucket-helper-mcp

# Or run only FastAPI directly:
uvicorn bucket_helper.api:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000
# → Swagger UI at http://localhost:8000/docs

Per-request credentials can also be sent as multipart form fields (s3_access_key / s3_secret_key / s3_bucket / s3_https / …).

Docker

docker build -t bucket-helper .
docker run --rm -p 8000:8000 \
  -e BUCKET_HELPER_CONFIG=/config/s3_config.json \
  -v $PWD/s3_config.json:/config/s3_config.json:ro \
  bucket-helper

See also: LANDSCAPE.md (competitive positioning) and GUI.md (visual product design plan).

Author

• Warith HARCHAOUI

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Mohamed Chelali and Bachir Zerroug for fruitful discussions.