foamlib is a modern Python package that provides an elegant, streamlined interface for interacting with OpenFOAM. It's designed to make OpenFOAM-based workflows more accessible, reproducible, and precise for researchers and engineers.

Loading a volVectorField with one million cells¹

👋 Introduction

foamlib is a Python package designed to simplify and streamline OpenFOAM workflows. It provides:

• 🗄️ Intuitive file handling: Read and write OpenFOAM configuration and field files as if they were Python objects
• ⚡ High performance: Standalone parser supporting both ASCII and binary formats with or without compression
• 🔄 Async operations: Run multiple cases in parallel with full asyncio support
• 🎯 Type safety: A fully typed API for a better development experience
• ⚙️ Workflow automation: Reduce boilerplate code for pre/post-processing and simulation management
• 🧩 Fully compatible: Works with OpenFOAM from both openfoam.com and openfoam.org
• And more!

Compared to PyFoam and other similar tools like fluidfoam, fluidsimfoam, and Ofpp, foamlib offers significant advantages in performance, usability, and modern Python compatibility.

🧱 Core components

foamlib provides these key classes for different aspects of OpenFOAM workflow automation:

📄 File handling

• FoamFile - Read and write OpenFOAM configuration files as if they were Python dicts
• FoamFieldFile - Handle field files with support for ASCII and binary formats (with or without compression)

📁 Case management

• FoamCase - Configure, run, and access results of OpenFOAM cases
• AsyncFoamCase - Asynchronous version for running multiple cases concurrently
• AsyncSlurmFoamCase - Specialized for Slurm-based HPC clusters

📦 Installation

Choose your preferred installation method:

✨ pip	pip install foamlib
🐍 conda	conda install -c conda-forge foamlib
🍺 Homebrew	brew install gerlero/openfoam/foamlib
🐳 Docker	docker pull microfluidica/foamlib

🚀 Quick start

Here's a simple example to get you started:

import os
from pathlib import Path
from foamlib import FoamCase

# Clone and run a case
my_case = FoamCase(Path(os.environ["FOAM_TUTORIALS"]) / "incompressible/simpleFoam/pitzDaily").clone("myCase")
my_case.run()

# Access results
latest_time = my_case[-1]
pressure = latest_time["p"].internal_field
velocity = latest_time["U"].internal_field

print(f"Max pressure: {max(pressure)}")
print(f"Velocity at first cell: {velocity[0]}")

# Clean up
my_case.clean()

📚 More usage examples

🐑 Clone a case

import os
from pathlib import Path
from foamlib import FoamCase

pitz_tutorial = FoamCase(Path(os.environ["FOAM_TUTORIALS"]) / "incompressible/simpleFoam/pitzDaily")
my_pitz = pitz_tutorial.clone("myPitz")

🏃 Run the case and access results

# Run the simulation
my_pitz.run()

# Access the latest time step
latest_time = my_pitz[-1]
p = latest_time["p"]
U = latest_time["U"]

print(f"Pressure field: {p.internal_field}")
print(f"Velocity field: {U.internal_field}")

🧹 Clean up and modify settings

# Clean the case
my_pitz.clean()

# Modify control settings
my_pitz.control_dict["writeInterval"] = 10
my_pitz.control_dict["endTime"] = 2000

📝 Batch file modifications

# Make multiple file changes efficiently
with my_pitz.fv_schemes as f:
    f["gradSchemes"]["default"] = f["divSchemes"]["default"]
    f["snGradSchemes"]["default"] = "uncorrected"

⏳ Asynchronous execution

import asyncio
from foamlib import AsyncFoamCase

async def run_multiple_cases():
    """Run multiple cases concurrently."""
    base_case = AsyncFoamCase(my_pitz)
    
    # Create and run multiple cases with different parameters
    tasks = []
    for i, velocity in enumerate([1, 2, 3]):
        case = base_case.clone(f"case_{i}")
        case[0]["U"].boundary_field["inlet"].value = [velocity, 0, 0]
        tasks.append(case.run())
    
    # Wait for all cases to complete
    await asyncio.gather(*tasks)

# Run the async function
asyncio.run(run_multiple_cases())

🔢 Direct field file access

import numpy as np
from foamlib import FoamFieldFile

# Read field data directly
U = FoamFieldFile("0/U")
print(f"Velocity field shape: {np.shape(U.internal_field)}")
print(f"Boundaries: {list(U.boundary_field)}")

🎯 Optimization with HPC clusters

import os
from pathlib import Path
from foamlib import AsyncSlurmFoamCase
from scipy.optimize import differential_evolution

# Set up base case for optimization
base = AsyncSlurmFoamCase(Path(os.environ["FOAM_TUTORIALS"]) / "incompressible/simpleFoam/pitzDaily")

async def objective_function(x):
    """Objective function for optimization."""
    async with base.clone() as case:
        # Set inlet velocity based on optimization parameters
        case[0]["U"].boundary_field["inlet"].value = [x[0], 0, 0]
        
        # Run with fallback to local execution if Slurm unavailable
        await case.run(fallback=True)
        
        # Return objective (minimize velocity magnitude at outlet)
        return abs(case[-1]["U"].internal_field[0][0])

# Run optimization with parallel jobs
result = differential_evolution(
    objective_function, 
    bounds=[(-1, 1)], 
    workers=AsyncSlurmFoamCase.map, 
    polish=False
)
print(f"Optimal inlet velocity: {result.x[0]}")

📄 Create Python-based run/Allrun scripts

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Run the OpenFOAM case in this directory."""

from pathlib import Path
from foamlib import FoamCase

# Initialize case from this directory
case = FoamCase(Path(__file__).parent)

# Adjust simulation parameters
case.control_dict["endTime"] = 1000
case.control_dict["writeInterval"] = 100

# Run the simulation
print("Starting OpenFOAM simulation...")
case.run()
print("Simulation completed successfully!")

📘 Documentation

For more details on how to use foamlib, check out the documentation.

🙋 Support

If you have any questions or need help, feel free to open a discussion.

If you believe you have found a bug in foamlib, please open an issue.

🧑‍💻 Contributing

You're welcome to contribute to foamlib! Check out the contributing guidelines for more information.

🖋️ Citation

foamlib has been published in the Journal of Open Source Software!

If you use foamlib in your research, please cite our paper:

Gerlero, G. S., & Kler, P. A. (2025). foamlib: A modern Python package for working with OpenFOAM. Journal of Open Source Software, 10(109), 7633. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.07633

📋 BibTeX

@article{foamlib,
    author = {Gerlero, Gabriel S. and Kler, Pablo A.},
    doi = {10.21105/joss.07633},
    journal = {Journal of Open Source Software},
    month = may,
    number = {109},
    pages = {7633},
    title = {{foamlib: A modern Python package for working with OpenFOAM}},
    url = {https://joss.theoj.org/papers/10.21105/joss.07633},
    volume = {10},
    year = {2025}
}

👟 Footnotes

[1] foamlib 1.3.11 vs. PyFoam 2023.7 (Python 3.11.13) on an M3 MacBook Air. Benchmark script.