rp2040py

Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040) Emulator in Python — started as a port of rp2040js, now grown into its own CLI/SDK toolkit around it (see Differences from upstream rp2040js below). It blinks, runs native code, and even the MicroPython REPL!

See docs/reference/porting-checklist.md for the file-by-file port status against upstream rp2040js.

Table of Contents

• rp2040py
  • Table of Contents
  • Installation
    • Environments without compiled-extension support (iOS)
    • Shell completions
  • Run the demo project
    • Native code
    • MicroPython code
      • mpremote
      • Filesystem support
      • WiFi (Pico W / CYW43439)
    • CircuitPython code
      • Filesystem support
    • Kaluma (other USB-CDC firmware, not MicroPython/CircuitPython)
    • Bootrom revisions
    • Library API
  • Performance
  • Differences from upstream rp2040js
  • Used by
  • Learn more
  • License

Installation

pip install rp2040py

or, with uv:

uv add rp2040py       # into a project
uv tool install rp2040py   # as a standalone CLI tool
uvx rp2040py ...           # run without installing at all

Any of these gives you the rp2040py console script (python -m rp2040py works identically), so the emulator is runnable without a git checkout - see Run the demo project below for the checkout-equivalent commands.

Environments without compiled-extension support (iOS)

rp2040py ships an optional Cython-accelerated backend as a compiled extension (see Performance) alongside a pure-Python fallback with identical behavior - but a handful of environments, fully sandboxed by the OS with no dynamic-library loading at all, can't load compiled .so extensions or import native code dynamically. So far that's confirmed only for iOS app runtimes like Pythonista and PythonIDE - not Android: both Termux and Python 3 IDE (Pydroid 3) load the compiled rp2040py.native extension fine, confirmed by hand (see "Tested" below). A plain pip install rp2040py in one of the affected iOS environments resolves to a platform-specific wheel that simply won't load. Force the pure-Python universal wheel instead:

pip download rp2040py --only-binary=:all: --platform any --abi none
pip install rp2040py-*.whl --upgrade

This is the exact same artifact rp2040py's own release pipeline builds and publishes for every release (RP2040PY_SKIP_NATIVE_BUILD=1, see .github/workflows/publish.yml's build-pure job) - not a degraded or unsupported build, just the emulator without the compiled speedup.

Shell completions

rp2040py install-completion sets up tab completion for every subcommand and flag (--board, --log-level, --littlefs, ...) in Bash or Zsh, via argcomplete:

rp2040py install-completion
# then open a new shell, or:
source ~/.bashrc   # or ~/.zshrc

This appends the shell's register-python-argcomplete hook to ~/.bashrc/~/.zshrc (detected from $SHELL) - a one-time setup step, not something run on every invocation.

To confirm you actually got it:

• Before installing: the downloaded file's name - a genuine pure-Python wheel is rp2040py-<version>-py3-none-any.whl, with no platform/ABI tag (e.g. no cp310-abi3-manylinux...) anywhere in the filename.
• At runtime: rp2040py.rp2040.RP2040.__module__ is "rp2040py._rp2040" (pure Python) rather than "rp2040py.native._rp2040" (compiled) - equivalently, watch for the UserWarning ("Native extensions are not available...") rp2040py.native raises on import once the compiled backend isn't present, which is the expected, harmless case here rather than an error.

Tested:

• iOS
  • Pythonista - full support (no [fs] optional dependency); mpremote itself now confirmed to work over --tcp-port, but running the emulator and mpremote at the same time did not work on-device - the app's sandbox appears to only run one Python process per app instance, with no real subprocess/multi-process support, so there's no way to have rp2040py micropython --tcp-port ... and a separate mpremote invocation running concurrently the way this works on a normal OS. This is a constraint of the app sandbox itself, not something rp2040py/rp2040py mpremote can patch around (unlike the list_ports ImportError below).
  • PythonIDE - full support (no [fs] optional dependency); same mpremote-works-but-not-concurrently-with-the-emulator caveat as Pythonista above.
• Android
  • Termux - full support, including mpremote via rp2040py mpremote (the real mpremote binary alone still fails - pySerial's list_ports has no Android backend and raises ImportError at import time regardless of which subcommand you run; rp2040py mpremote patches around it - see docs/reference/mpremote.md). The compiled rp2040py.native (Cython) extension loads and runs fine here too - confirmed by hand, no pure-Python fallback needed.
  • Python 3 IDE (Pydroid 3) - full support, including mpremote via rp2040py mpremote over --tcp-port (same caveat and same fix as Termux above) and the compiled rp2040py.native (Cython) extension, both confirmed by hand.

Run the demo project

The commands below assume rp2040py is installed (pip install rp2040py / uv add rp2040py / uv tool install rp2040py, or run ad hoc with uvx rp2040py ...). From a checkout of this repo instead, each maps 1:1 onto uv run python demo/*.py (demo/*.py are thin wrappers around the same src/rp2040py/cli code):

rp2040py subcommand	Checkout equivalent
rp2040py run ...	uv run python demo/emulator_run.py ...
rp2040py micropython ...	uv run python demo/micropython_run.py ...
rp2040py kaluma ...	uv run python demo/kaluma_run.py ...
rp2040py bench ...	uv run python demo/benchmark.py ...

--board {pico,pico_w} (default pico) is available on all four and picks which board's fixed extras get attached alongside the RP2040 itself - currently just the onboard LED, except for pico_w, which also attaches an emulated CYW43439 WiFi/Bluetooth chip; see WiFi (Pico W / CYW43439) below.

Native code

You'd need to get hello_uart.hex by building it from the pico-examples repo, then copy it to the rp2040py root directory and run:

rp2040py run
# or, without installing:
uvx rp2040py run

You can also specify the path to the image on the command line and/or load a UF2 image:

rp2040py run --image ./my-pico-project.uf2

A GDB server will be available on port 3333, and the data written to UART0 will be printed to the console.

MicroPython code

No manual download needed: just run

rp2040py micropython
# or, without installing:
uvx rp2040py micropython

and enjoy the MicroPython REPL! Quit the REPL with Ctrl+X. The first run fetches the recommended MicroPython build (1.21.0, currently) from micropython.org into ~/.cache/rp2040py and reuses that cached file afterwards (falls back to the current directory if the cache directory isn't writable). 1.21 is recommended: it does far less work before dropping to the REPL prompt than newer releases, so it boots dramatically faster in the emulator (see the benchmark below). Newer releases work too, just slower to reach the REPL - e.g. 1.28.0.

A different version, a local UF2 file, or a CircuitPython version (--circuitpython, see below) can be loaded by supplying the --image option - a known version tag (1.28.0), or a path to a UF2 file already on disk:

Tip

Booting real firmware means executing millions of Thumb instructions through a pure-Python interpreter, which is dramatically slower than V8 JIT-compiling the equivalent JS in rp2040js. Measured with demo/benchmark.py booting MicroPython 1.28 + littlefs, then running a typical resident script (while True: print(...); time.sleep(1), same as ci-micropython.yml's fixture) to its first output:

Interpreter	Time
CPython 3.10	188.98s
CPython 3.10 + rp2040py.native (Cython, on by default)	25.83s (~7.3x)
CPython 3.14 + PYTHON_JIT=1	113.77s (~1.7x)
PyPy 3.10	8.75s (~22x)

The rp2040py.native figure improved from an earlier 46.65s (~4.1x) after fixing two Cython compilation gotchas in the bus/interpreter hot path (untyped address/value parameters forcing a PyLong box on every memory access, and bare 0x80000000+ hex literals silently compiling as Python-object constants instead of C literals) - see docs/records/0013-cython-core.md for the full writeup, including why PyPy's gap didn't close by the same amount (a real boot spends a large, unchanged share of its time in still-Python peripheral emulation that these fixes don't touch). This row is CPython 3.10 specifically (this project's default target, and below the abi3 floor - see Performance below): CPython 3.11+ actually measures slower in absolute terms (33.90s, ~5.6x) on the same fixed source, purely from the stable-ABI (Py_LIMITED_API) build every 3.11+ wheel uses - see the same record 0013 section for that gap too, found (and initially mismeasured!) while producing these very numbers.

The rp2040py.native row is what most installs actually get with no extra effort - see Performance below. It doesn't help PyPy (compilation is deliberately skipped there - PyPy's own JIT already does better on its own than routing through rp2040py.native's CPython-C-API-based extension would), so for CPU-bound runs PyPy is still the clear winner: uv run --python pypy3.10 --no-dev -- rp2040py micropython ... (or ... -- python demo/micropython_run.py ... from a checkout). See docs/reference/porting-checklist.md for the full breakdown (including a synthetic instructions/sec benchmark) and CI's python_runtime matrix, which tests all three.

This is also why 1.21 is the recommended version: reaching the bare REPL prompt is fast on both 1.21 and 1.28 (well under a second, whether or not a littlefs main.py auto-runs first) - the gap above is specifically about running a script shaped like the one above afterward. On the same machine and CPython 3.10, that same script reaches its first print() in 3.72s (1,418,835 steps) under 1.21 versus 188.98s (64,679,599 steps) under 1.28 - identical instruction counts run-to-run (this is deterministic, not host-speed noise), so the ~45x gap is a real difference in how much work 1.28 does per loop iteration, not an emulator bug: profiling shows the core essentially never reaches WFI/idle during that time, so it's real Thumb instructions being interpreted, not something hanging. 1.28 still boots and mounts a mklittlefs-built littlefs image correctly (that's exactly the version pinned disk_version fixed compatibility for, see below); it's simply much more expensive to actually run typical resident scripts on.

Core-level per-instruction throughput work continues independently of this version gap (most recently: RP2040.write_uint32() was checking a peripheral dict lookup before cheap RAM/flash range comparisons - see docs/reference/porting-checklist.md for the running log). These are general wins, not something that closes the 1.21-vs-1.28 gap itself - that gap is real work MicroPython 1.28's own compiled firmware does per loop iteration, not something this project's emulator code controls.

rp2040py micropython --image 1.28.0
rp2040py micropython --image my_image.uf2

A GDB server on port 3333 can be enabled by specifying the --gdb flag:

rp2040py micropython --gdb

For using the MicroPython demo code in tests, --expect-text can come in handy: it will look for the given text in the serial output and exit with code 0 if found, or 1 if not found. It's repeatable (--expect-text foo --expect-text bar stops once both have appeared, on any line, not necessarily the same one or in that order) and, with --expect-regex, each --expect-text value is matched as a Python re pattern (via re.search) instead of a plain substring. You can find an example in the MicroPython CI test.

For one-shot, non-interactive runs (like micropython's own CLI), pass one of -c <command>, -m <module>, or a script <filename> - mutually exclusive, matching [-c <command> | -m <module> | <filename>]. Instead of dropping into the REPL, rp2040py boots the device, runs it via the raw-REPL protocol, prints its stdout/stderr, and exits with the device's exit status (0 on success, 1 if it raised):

rp2040py micropython -c "print(1 + 1)"
rp2040py micropython -m sys
rp2040py micropython path/to/script.py

mpremote

--tcp-port <port> serves the console over a plain TCP socket instead of this process's own stdio - for tools that expect a serial port but can't open one, notably mpremote in a sandboxed environment with no serial support at all (e.g. Pythonista, see above). No client-side patching needed - mpremote connect socket://host:port just talks directly to rp2040py, via pySerial's own built-in socket:// URL support:

rp2040py micropython --tcp-port 4321
# in another terminal:
mpremote connect socket://127.0.0.1:4321 exec "print(1 + 1)"
mpremote connect socket://127.0.0.1:4321 fs cp your_script.py :main.py

--pty (POSIX only) is the alternative: a real pseudo-terminal instead of a TCP socket, whose slave side (e.g. /dev/pts/3) is a genuine POSIX serial device path - everything --tcp-port supports also works here, plus mpremote's own bare interactive REPL, which does not work over --tcp-port's socket:// transport through the real mpremote binary (see below) - though rp2040py mpremote (a thin proxy subcommand, same arguments as mpremote itself) patches around that specific crash, so rp2040py mpremote connect socket://host:port repl works too, no --pty needed.

See docs/reference/mpremote.md for the full picture: connection details for both flags, the rp2040py mpremote proxy and the upstream bug it patches around (micropython#18660), how to quit the emulator when mpremote owns the console, and an explicit list of which mpremote commands are verified working against each transport (exec, fs, mount, run, reset/bootloader, the interactive repl over --pty or rp2040py mpremote, ...) versus the remaining documented limitations (the real mpremote binary's own bare interactive REPL over --tcp-port, --pty on Windows, and df on MicroPython ≤1.21).

Filesystem support

With MicroPython, you can use the filesystem on the Pico. This becomes useful as more than one script file is used in your code. Build a LittleFS formatted filesystem image (see mklittlefs below) and pass it with --littlefs path/to/littlefs.img, and your main.py will be automatically started from there (it's silently skipped, not an error, if the file doesn't exist - but it's never loaded unless --littlefs is given explicitly, even if a littlefs.img happens to sit in the current directory).

The mklittlefs subcommand builds such an image (requires the optional fs extra: pip install rp2040py[fs] / uv sync --extra fs). Every file keeps its own basename; pass --main to mark one of them as main.py (auto-run on boot) - omit it entirely for a filesystem with no auto-run script, e.g. modules staged for a raw-REPL-driven test, or omit files entirely for an empty formatted image. Always builds fresh - pass -f/--force to overwrite an existing --output (there's no "add these files to the existing image" mode; rebuild from the full file list):

rp2040py mklittlefs -o littlefs.img your_main.py your.py files.py here.py --main your_main.py
rp2040py mklittlefs -o littlefs.img --force your_main.py --main your_main.py  # to overwrite it later

--disk-version {2.0,2.1} selects the littlefs on-disk format (defaults to 2.0): MicroPython <=1.21's bundled littlefs can only mount 2.0, while 1.28's reads both - see docs/records/0003-littlefs-image-format.md for why.

--target {micropython,circuitpython,kaluma} presets --block-size/--block-count to a known firmware's own filesystem layout instead of spelling them out by hand (mutually exclusive with passing them explicitly) - see the Kaluma section below for why its layout differs from MicroPython/CircuitPython's.

The filesystem is writeable - MicroPython's os/rp2.Flash calls go through a real JEDEC SPI-NOR flash command emulation in the SSI peripheral (RPSSI), the same peripheral real hardware uses to erase/program flash.

--dump-fs <path> dumps the device's filesystem flash region back out to a local file when the micropython/kaluma subcommand exits (Ctrl+X, --expect-text, or the end of a -c/-m/script run) - the same layout --littlefs path/to/littlefs.img reads back in, so a dump can be fed straight back with --littlefs/--dump-fs pointing at the same path for persistence across runs:

rp2040py micropython --littlefs littlefs.img --dump-fs littlefs.img -c "open('log.txt', 'a').write('run\n')"

Tip

This makes --dump-fs a littlefs-python-free alternative to mklittlefs: instead of building the image on the host with littlefs-python, boot the real emulated MicroPython firmware against blank flash, write files to it the normal way (open(path, "wb").write(data), exactly as code running on a real Pico would), and dump the resulting filesystem - built by MicroPython's own bundled littlefs, not a separately-installed library. demo/mklittlefs_dump.py generates such a script from a list of local files (mirroring mklittlefs's own --main semantics) for use as the positional <filename> argument:

python demo/mklittlefs_dump.py your_main.py your.py files.py here.py --main your_main.py \
    --output flash_script.py
rp2040py micropython --dump-fs littlefs.img flash_script.py

Useful when the fs extra isn't installed, or to build against exactly the same littlefs version/behavior a given firmware boots with instead of whatever littlefs-python happens to bundle.

WiFi (Pico W / CYW43439)

--board pico_w (default: pico) attaches an emulated CYW43439 - the WiFi/Bluetooth chip on a real Pico W - over the same gSPI bus real firmware drives it through:

rp2040py micropython --board pico_w

network.WLAN works against it: nic.active(True), nic.scan(), and nic.connect(ssid, key) all complete, answered by a fixed fake "RP2040PY-GUEST" access point built into the emulation rather than anything real - there's no bridge to an actual network yet. Live-boot verified against real, unmodified MicroPython firmware on both 1.23.0 and 1.28.0:

import network

nic = network.WLAN(network.WLAN.IF_STA)
nic.active(True)
print(nic.scan())
print(nic.connect("RP2040PY-GUEST", "key"))

See docs/records/0027-cyw43-wifi.md for the full picture, including exactly what's emulated at the gSPI/SDPCM protocol level and what's left (a real network bridge, network.WLAN.IF_AP).

CircuitPython code

To run the CircuitPython demo, follow the directions above for MicroPython but add --circuitpython:

rp2040py micropython --circuitpython

and start the CircuitPython REPL! As with MicroPython, the firmware (8.0.2 by default) is downloaded automatically on first use; a different version or a local file can be given via --image (e.g. --image 10.2.1 or a path to an already-downloaded UF2). The rest of the experience is the same as the MicroPython demo (Ctrl+X to exit, the --gdb option, etc).

Filesystem support

For CircuitPython, you can create a FAT12 filesystem in Linux using the truncate and mkfs.vfat utilities:

truncate fat12.img -s 1M  # make the image file
mkfs.vfat -F12 -S512 fat12.img  # create the FAT12 filesystem

You can then mount the filesystem image and add files to it:

mkdir fat12  # create the mounting folder if needed
sudo mount -o loop fat12.img fat12/  # mount the filesystem to the folder
sudo cp code.py fat12/  # copy code.py to the filesystem
sudo umount fat12/  # unmount the filesystem

Then pass it explicitly with --fat12 (no default - fat12.img sitting in the current directory is never picked up implicitly):

rp2040py micropython --circuitpython --fat12 fat12.img

CircuitPython doesn't typically write to its own filesystem at runtime the way MicroPython's os/rp2.Flash does, so this hasn't been separately exercised - but the underlying flash-write path (see the MicroPython filesystem support section) is the same SSI peripheral either way.

Kaluma (other USB-CDC firmware, not MicroPython/CircuitPython)

rp2040py's USB/CDC emulation isn't MicroPython-specific - any firmware presenting a CDC-ACM serial console works the same way underneath. The kaluma subcommand runs Kaluma (a JavaScript runtime for RP2040), verified against 1.2.1 - it boots, USB enumerates, and evaluates real JS at its REPL prompt (e.g. sending 1+1 gets back 2):

rp2040py kaluma
# or, without installing:
uvx rp2040py kaluma
rp2040py kaluma --image 1.2.1
rp2040py kaluma --image my_kaluma_image.uf2

As with micropython, missing firmware is downloaded automatically (1.2.1 by default - the newest release still shipping a plain, non--w, RP2040 pico build; 1.3.0+ only ships pico2/pico2-w). Ctrl+X to exit, same as the MicroPython demo. Unlike micropython, kaluma is interactive-only - Kaluma has no raw-REPL-equivalent protocol, so there's no -c/-m/<filename>.

An optional <script.js> positional stages a local file into Kaluma's "user program" flash region before boot - the same one kaluma flash <file> writes to on real hardware, which Kaluma auto-executes on every boot:

rp2040py kaluma your_script.js

Give it a few real seconds after connecting before expecting output - like MicroPython, booting real firmware through an interpreted emulator takes actual wall-clock time (JerryScript engine init, then running your script), not something --expect-text needs to work around, just something to expect if driving this non-interactively.

Separately, Kaluma has its own pluggable littlefs-backed filesystem (see its docs), mounted from a 512K region of flash with 4096-byte blocks - a different flash region than the user-program one above, with no auto-run semantics of its own (plain storage, accessible from JS via require('fs')). Build a compatible image with mklittlefs and pass it via --littlefs explicitly (no default - unlike MicroPython's --littlefs, it's never picked up implicitly, even from a kaluma_littlefs.img sitting in the current directory):

rp2040py mklittlefs -o kaluma_littlefs.img --target kaluma your_script.js
rp2040py kaluma --littlefs kaluma_littlefs.img

--target {micropython,circuitpython,kaluma} presets --block-size/--block-count for a known firmware's filesystem layout (mutually exclusive with passing them explicitly) - omit both for MicroPython's own defaults.

--dump-fs <path> works here too, dumping the same littlefs-formatted region back out on exit - but unlike micropython, kaluma has no non-interactive exec mode to script filesystem writes through (no -c/<filename> raw-REPL equivalent, see above), so the mklittlefs-without- littlefs-python trick above doesn't apply the same way; use it interactively via require('fs') at the REPL instead, or stick with mklittlefs.

--tcp-port <port>/--pty also work here, same as micropython - see mpremote above (that section is mpremote-specific, but the underlying mechanism, a plain socket/pty serving the console instead of this process's own stdio, is not).

Note

Without a valid --littlefs image, board.js's unconditional mount-at-startup logs Bad block at 0x0/Superblock 0x0 has become unwritable/Error: No space left on device against the unformatted flash region - purely cosmetic, Kaluma catches and prints the error without aborting, so boot and <script.js> auto-run both continue normally past it. This used to reproduce even against a validly-built mklittlefs image, not just blank flash - no longer reproduced after the SSI flash-read/write fixes in docs/records/0008-ssi-flash-write.md (a real --target kaluma image now mounts and reads/writes cleanly, verified via tests/kaluma/index-flash-rw.js), though that wasn't a deliberate target of those fixes and hasn't been separately root-caused - flag it if it resurfaces.

Kaluma prints its "Welcome to Kaluma" banner exactly once, right at boot - but that's before the emulated USB-CDC connection to the host is actually up, so (same as real hardware racing a host terminal that isn't already attached - Kaluma's own docs: "if you cannot see the prompt, press Enter several times") those bytes are typically gone by the time anything's listening. kaluma doesn't send anything to work around this - type .hi yourself at the prompt to reprint the same banner on demand if you need to see it; if you're scripting against a device's output instead of typing at it interactively, stage a <script.js> and match against its output, which isn't racy (see the Kaluma CI test, which does exactly that).

Bootrom revisions

run, micropython, kaluma, and bench all boot a fixed bootrom (B1, bundled - no download needed) by default. --bootrom picks a different one: a b0/b1/b2 version tag (downloaded automatically from Raspberry Pi's pico-bootrom-rp2040 releases and cached locally, same as --image), or a local .elf/.bin path:

rp2040py micropython --bootrom b2
rp2040py micropython --bootrom path/to/custom.elf

Raspberry Pi only publishes .elf for each revision - pyelftools (a normal dependency, not an extra: it's a pure-Python wheel with no platform-specific build to justify gating it) parses out the ROM image on the fly, no separate conversion step needed. A local .bin (e.g. produced with objcopy -O binary) is loaded directly with no parsing at all.

Library API

Everything above is the CLI, but the emulator is also usable programmatically - e.g. to run code against a device and check its output the way Thonny does over a real serial port, from a test suite or another tool. rp2040py.device.MicroPythonDevice boots a UF2 image (optionally for a specific board, e.g. board="pico_w") and lets you run code on it via the same raw-REPL protocol mpremote run/tools/pyboard.py use, interrupting anything already running on the device first (e.g. an auto-run main.py from a littlefs image).

Note

Async-native only, no blocking API. MicroPythonDevice/KalumaDevice/BaseDevice boot and run as coroutines on an asyncio event loop (the same "engine room" the CLI itself runs on) - there is no blocking start()/exec()/exec_file() and no synchronous with device: form. Calling a blocking wrapper's Future.result() from the same loop it would need to run on deadlocks (the loop can't process the coroutine that resolves the Future while its own thread is stuck waiting on it), so this project stopped offering one rather than ship that footgun - wrap a call in asyncio.run(...) yourself if you want blocking behavior from a plain script.

asyncio, via astart()/aexec()/aexec_file(), entered as an async with context manager:

import asyncio
from rp2040py.device import MicroPythonDevice


async def main():
    async with MicroPythonDevice("RPI_PICO-20231005-v1.21.0.uf2") as device:
        stdout, stderr = await device.aexec("print(1 + 1)")
        assert stdout == b"2\r\n"

        stdout, stderr = await device.aexec_file("my_script.py")


asyncio.run(main())

Callback style, via exec_async()'s concurrent.futures.Future - no separate API needed, Future.add_done_callback() does this out of the box. Requires the device already started (astart()/start_async() first, or already inside async with):

def on_done(future):
    stdout, stderr = future.result()
    print(stdout.decode())


device.exec_async("print(1 + 1)").add_done_callback(on_done)

Both share one asyncio.Lock per device: since the device only has a single REPL channel and can't run two exec()s at once, calling exec_async()/aexec() again before a previous call finishes doesn't raise, it just queues behind it and runs once its turn comes. This is exactly what powers the CLI's own micropython -c/-m/<filename> batch mode - it's a caller of this same API, not a separate implementation. start_async()/astart()/stop() are available directly if you want more control over the lifecycle than the context manager gives you - stop() itself stays a plain synchronous call.

Performance

The interpreter core (CortexM0Core) and the memory bus's hot read/write paths are also available as a compiled Cython extension (rp2040py.native), giving roughly 7x the instruction throughput of the pure-Python implementation on both a synthetic benchmark and a real MicroPython boot (see docs/records/0013-cython-core.md for the full measured breakdown).

This is on by default and needs nothing from you: pip install rp2040py builds it automatically when a C compiler is available (prebuilt wheels are published for common platforms, so most installs don't even need one) and falls back to the identical pure-Python implementation otherwise

• correctness is the same either way, just the speed differs. A couple of environment variables exist for cases where you want to control this explicitly:

• RP2040PY_SKIP_CYTHON=1 - force the pure-Python implementation at runtime, even if the compiled extension is installed (e.g. to rule out a native-specific issue).

• RP2040PY_SKIP_NATIVE_BUILD=1 - skip compiling the extension at build time, for a deliberately pure-Python install/wheel.

Differences from upstream rp2040js

rp2040py started as a straight port of rp2040js - the core CPU/peripheral emulation still tracks it closely, and docs/reference/porting-checklist.md keeps a file-by-file checklist of that. But it's grown well past a 1:1 translation into its own toolkit with no rp2040js equivalent, built around actually running real firmware from a shell rather than embedding the emulator as a library (rp2040js's own primary use case, e.g. inside Wokwi):

• A real packaged CLI - rp2040py/python -m rp2040py, installable via pip/uv, not just a checkout-only demo/*.ts script. Firmware (MicroPython/CircuitPython/Kaluma) is auto-downloaded and cached by version tag instead of needing to be fetched and placed by hand.
• A real, writeable filesystem: RPSSI (the SSI peripheral MicroPython/CircuitPython's os/rp2.Flash calls go through to erase/program flash) implements the actual JEDEC SPI-NOR command set (WREN/WRDI, status/JEDEC-ID reads, page program, sector/block erase) - the same commands real flash hardware understands - not just a register stub. rp2040js has the same gap MicroPython/CircuitPython on rp2040py used to have (see docs/records/0008-ssi-flash-write.md's "SSI flash-write support"): on-device open(path, "w")/os.remove()/... genuinely persist to the emulated flash now, instead of raising/no-opping against an unimplemented peripheral.
• A filesystem toolkit: mklittlefs builds a littlefs image on the host (needs littlefs-python, the optional fs extra); --dump-fs builds one without that dependency instead, by writing files to a booted device's real filesystem the normal way and reading the resulting flash region back out - see mpremote and Filesystem support above.
• A programmatic device API (rp2040py.device.MicroPythonDevice/KalumaDevice) for driving a booted device from another Python program over the raw-REPL protocol (device.exec("print(1+1)")) - the same API micropython -c/-m/<filename> and --tcp-port themselves are built on, not a separate implementation. --tcp-port/--pty in particular let any serial-oriented external tool - mpremote chief among them, including its own bare interactive REPL via rp2040py mpremote (see mpremote) - drive the emulator over a real socket or pty, something rp2040js has no analogue for at all (no pty/socket-backed USB-CDC passthrough anywhere in its source, only stdio-driven demo scripts).
• Broader firmware coverage: MicroPython, CircuitPython, and Kaluma (a second, independent USB-CDC-console JS runtime for RP2040 - unrelated to rp2040js despite both being JS) all boot and run against this emulator; a built-in GDB server (--gdb) works against any of them.
• machine.reset()/machine.bootloader() actually reset the device: rp2040js's own RPWatchdog.onWatchdogTrigger (src/peripherals/watchdog.ts) defaults to logging "Watchdog triggered, but no reset handler provided" and does nothing else - the emulated CPU spins forever waiting for a reset that never happens. rp2040py's RPWatchdog.on_watchdog_trigger performs a real in-place reset (CPU core, PWM/DMA/USB-CDC peripheral state) and jumps back to flash's entry point, preserving flash/filesystem content and every externally-referenced peripheral object's identity - mpremote reset/mpremote bootloader (the latter performs the same reset rather than entering actual BOOTSEL mode, which isn't implemented) both return promptly instead of hanging.
• Configurable bootrom revision (--bootrom b0/b1/b2, or a local .elf/.bin) - see Bootrom revisions below - auto-downloaded and cached the same way firmware images are. rp2040js ships exactly one hardcoded bootrom build (demo/bootrom.ts, revision B1), with no way to select a different revision at all.
• An optional native-compiled backend (rp2040py.native, Cython) for when pure-Python instruction dispatch is the bottleneck - see Performance above - alongside a pure-Python universal wheel for environments that can't load compiled extensions at all (e.g. Pythonista).
• Pico W / CYW43439 WiFi emulation (--board pico_w) - real network.WLAN calls (active()/scan()/connect()) against a real, unmodified MicroPython firmware's CYW43439 driver are answered at the actual gSPI/SDPCM protocol level, not stubbed out - something rp2040js has no equivalent of at all (no --board concept, no WiFi chip emulation). See WiFi (Pico W / CYW43439) above.

See docs/reference/porting-checklist.md#known-differences-from-rp2040js for the exhaustive, file-level breakdown (including behavioral divergences found while porting, not just added features).

Used by

• ballistics-lab/micropython-bclibc — tests its RP2040 usermod/natmod builds in CI by actually booting real firmware through this emulator (o-murphy/rp2040py/.github/actions/setup-rp2040py), not just compiling it.

Learn more

• rp2040js — the upstream TypeScript emulator this project is ported from.
• docs/reference/porting-checklist.md — port status, file by file.

License

Released under the MIT license. Copyright (c) 2021, Uri Shaked. Copyright (c) 2026, Dmytro Yaroshenko.