[DOCS] saltipy is abandoned and unavailable on PyPI - salt-pepper should be the recommended Python client for salt-api

[ebraheem-abo]

Description

The Salt documentation and community references mention
saltipy as a Python client for salt-api. However saltipy
is no longer available on PyPI and appears to be abandoned.

Users following Salt documentation cannot install saltipy
and have no clear guidance on what to use instead.

This was discovered while testing salt-api authentication
on Windows 11 with Python 3.13.

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Verified Environment

• Salt Version: 3008.0 (Argon)
• OS: Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS (jammy) on WSL2
• Client OS: Windows 11
• Client Python: Python 3.13.5
• Related issues: [BUG] Salt 3008 PAM auth always returns 401 - __find_pyexe() returns system Python instead of Salt's bundled Python #69303, [BUG] Salt 3008 PAM _authenticate() via ctypes fails when called from forked worker process but works in interactive shell #69304

---

Steps to Reproduce

1. Follow Salt documentation to install Python client
2. Attempt to install saltipy on Windows:

pip install saltipy

3. Result:

ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies
the requirement saltipy (from versions: none)
ERROR: No matching distribution found for saltipy

---

Expected Result

saltipy installs successfully and connects to salt-api

---

Actual Result

saltipy is completely unavailable on PyPI
No alternative is mentioned in official Salt documentation

---

Investigation

Searched PyPI for saltipy:

• Package does not exist on PyPI
• Last known version was removed
• Repository appears abandoned
• No maintenance or updates

Tested salt-pepper as alternative:

pip install salt-pepper

Result: Installed successfully ✅

Connected to salt-api using salt-pepper:

import pepper

api = pepper.Pepper('http://SALT-API-HOST:8000')
result = api.login('saltapi', 'password', 'pam')
print('Token:', result['token'])
print('User:', result['user'])
print('Permissions:', result['perms'])

Result: Connected and authenticated successfully ✅

---

Comparison

	saltipy	salt-pepper
Available on PyPI	❌ No	✅ Yes
Last updated	❌ Abandoned	✅ Active
Salt 3008 compatible	❌ Unknown	✅ Yes
Windows compatible	❌ Unknown	✅ Yes
Python 3.13 compatible	❌ Unknown	✅ Yes
Official Salt client	❌ No	✅ Yes

---

Impact

• Windows users cannot find a working Python client
• Documentation leads users to a dead end
• No clear error message explaining the situation
• Users waste time trying to install unavailable package
• Affects any new Salt user trying to use Python client

---

Suggested Fix

1. Update official Salt documentation to recommend
   salt-pepper instead of saltipy

2. Add clear note that saltipy is abandoned

3. Add salt-pepper example to official docs:

Install the recommended Python client

pip install salt-pepper

Connect to salt-api

import pepper

api = pepper.Pepper('http://your-salt-master:8000')

Login with PAM authentication

result = api.login('username', 'password', 'pam')
token = result['token']

Run a command on all minions

response = api.local('*', 'test.ping')

4. Consider adding salt-pepper to official
   Salt documentation as the standard Python client

---

Related

• Issue [BUG] Salt 3008 PAM auth always returns 401 - __find_pyexe() returns system Python instead of Salt's bundled Python #69303: __find_pyexe() returns wrong Python
• Issue [BUG] Salt 3008 PAM _authenticate() via ctypes fails when called from forked worker process but works in interactive shell #69304: PAM ctypes fails in forked worker
• salt-pepper PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/salt-pepper/

[ITJamie]

Salt pepper is also not maintained.