Quick and Dirty Installation

To get started with Morepath right away, first create a Python 2.7 virtualenv:

$ virtualenv morepath_env

Now install Morepath into it:

$ morepath_env/bin/pip install morepath

You can now use the virtual env’s Python to run any code that uses Morepath:

$ morepath_env/bin/python

See Quickstart for information on how to get started with Morepath itself, including an example of

Creating a Morepath Project

When you develop a web application it’s a good idae to use standard Python project organization practices. Organizing your Project describes some recommendations on how to do this with Morepath. Relevant in particular is the contents of, which depends on Morepath and also sets up an entry point to start the web server.

Once you have a project you can use tools like pip or buildout. We’ll briefly describe how to use both.


With pip and a virtualenv called morepath_env, you can do this in your project’s root directory:

$ /path/to/morepath_env/bin/pip install --editable .

You can now run the application like this (if you called the console script myproject-start):

$ /path/to/morepath_env/bin/myproject-start


Buildout is more involved than pip, but can also do a lot more for you automatically and repeatedly.

Create a buildout.cfg file containing this:

develop = .
parts = scripts devpython
versions = versions

venusian = 1.0a8
morepath = 0.1
reg = 0.6

recipe = zc.recipe.egg:scripts
eggs = myproject

recipe = zc.recipe.egg
interpreter = devpython
eggs = myproject

This describes how to install our project for development. Change myproject to the name your project has in

Place a buildout in your project’s root directory.

The first time you create or check out a project you need to bootstrap the buildout. You can do this using the script. Do this from a virtualenv:

$ /path/to/morepath_env/bin/python

You only need to do this once. After that you can run:

$ bin/buildout

each time you want to redo the installation after you change the buildout config. It’s safe to run this when nothing has really changed too.

Once you’ve run buildout, you can start your application. If it’s named myproject-start in the entry point in, you can run it like this:

$ bin/myproject-start

What’s going on with buildout?

What’s going on? What else did that buildout.cfg do for us?

The develop line tells which directories to look in for Python projects (with a In this case only the local project directory . is one. But if you also have the checkout of another project that you depend on (maybe a development version of Morepath itself), you can add that directory to the develop section.

parts tells buildout what to configure; they are described in the [scripts] and [devpython] sections later.

The line versions=versions tells buildout to lock down version numbers according to the [versions] section.

The [scripts] section installs your web application as a script in the bin subdirectory of your project, according to the console_scripts entry point in your project’s If it’s called myproject-start, then you can start it like this:


This will start a HTTP server for your project.

The buildout also has installed pytest so you can run your project’s tests automatically:

bin/py.test myproject

(if your Python package is in myproject)

Now as to some optional extras. The [devpython] section installs a Python interpreter which can import exactly what your project can import. It assumes your project is called myproject in its; change the name to match your project. You can start it using:

$ bin/devpython

You’ll get the usual Python console >>>. This is useful for testing your project’s imports and API manually.

It also installs the flake8 tool which runs pep 8 checks and pyflakes automatically. You can run it against your project by writing:

$ bin/flake8 myproject

where myproject is your project’s source code directory.

Depending on Morepath development versions

If you like being on the cutting edge and want to depend on the latest Morepath and Reg development versions always, we recommend you use buildout with the mr.developer extension for your project. You can see how in this buildout.cfg.

You can also install these using pip (in a virtualenv). Here’s how:

$ pip install git+git://

$ pip install git+git://