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Requirements

  • Python 3.10 or higher
  • pip package manager

Basic Installation

Install iso8583sim from PyPI:

Optional Dependencies

LLM Providers

For AI-powered message explanation and generation:
After installation, set your API key:

MCP Server

To use iso8583sim from Claude, Cursor or another MCP client:
See MCP Server for client setup.

REST API

See REST API.

PIN Blocks and MACs

See PIN Blocks and MACs.

Performance Extensions

The compiled Cython extensions (about 2x faster parsing) are included in the wheels on PyPI for CPython 3.10 to 3.14 on:
  • Linux: x86_64 and aarch64 (glibc and musl)
  • macOS: Intel and Apple Silicon
  • Windows: x64
On other platforms pip installs the pure-Python wheel, which works the same, only slower. It also runs in Pyodide (Python in the browser, and Cloudflare Python Workers). To compile the extensions yourself, install a C compiler and run pip install --no-binary iso8583sim iso8583sim. To check which you have:

Development

For development and testing:
This includes pytest, ruff, mypy, and pre-commit hooks.

Documentation

The docs are built with Mintlify from the docs/ folder. To preview them locally (needs Node.js 20.17 or newer):
The Python API reference and the REST API spec are generated from the code. After changing docstrings or endpoints, regenerate them:

Development Installation

Clone and install in development mode:

Verify Installation

Next Steps