Firebase Admin Python SDK

7.3.0 · active · verified Sun Apr 05

The Firebase Admin Python SDK enables server-side (backend) Python developers to integrate Firebase into their services and applications. It provides programmatic access to Firebase services from trusted environments, allowing for tasks such as custom authentication, managing user data, sending FCM messages, and accessing Cloud Firestore and Storage. The current version is 7.3.0, and it maintains a regular release cadence with frequent updates.

Warnings

breaking Version 7.0.0 dropped support for Python 3.7 and 3.8. Python 3.9 support is deprecated; developers are strongly advised to use Python 3.10 or higher.
Fix: Upgrade your Python environment to 3.10 or newer.
breaking In version 7.0.0, the `send_all()` and `send_multicast()` FCM APIs were removed.
Fix: Migrate to `send_each()` and `send_each_for_multicast()` or their asynchronous counterparts `send_each_async()` and `send_each_for_multicast_async()`.
breaking The dependency on `google-api-python-client` was removed in v7.0.0, significantly reducing the SDK's bundle size. While this generally improves performance, ensure your project does not implicitly rely on this dependency.
Fix: No direct fix required for `firebase-admin` itself, but review your project's `requirements.txt` if you previously relied on this transitive dependency.
deprecated The `ActionCodeSettings.dynamic_link_domain` parameter was deprecated in v7.1.0 in favor of `link_domain` for customizing Firebase Hosting domains in email action flows.
Fix: Update `ActionCodeSettings` to use the `link_domain` parameter instead of `dynamic_link_domain`.
gotcha The Python Admin SDK for Firebase Realtime Database does not support real-time event listeners. All data retrieval operations are blocking.
Fix: If real-time updates are critical, consider alternative SDKs (e.g., Node.js, Java) or implement a polling mechanism on the Python backend.
gotcha Service account JSON key files contain sensitive credentials. Never commit them directly to version control.
Fix: Store the path to the service account key in an environment variable (`FIREBASE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY_PATH`) or use Google Application Default Credentials when deploying on Google Cloud infrastructure.

Install

pip install firebase-admin Install Firebase Admin SDK

Imports

firebase_admin
```
import firebase_admin
```
credentials
```
from firebase_admin import credentials
```
firestore
```
from firebase_admin import firestore
```
auth
```
from firebase_admin import auth
```
storage
```
from firebase_admin import storage
```
messaging
```
from firebase_admin import messaging
```

Quickstart

Initializes the Firebase Admin SDK using service account credentials (preferably from an environment variable) or Application Default Credentials. It then demonstrates connecting to Cloud Firestore, adding a new document to a collection, and reading all documents from that collection. Remember to replace placeholder project IDs and URLs, and secure your service account key.

import os
import firebase_admin
from firebase_admin import credentials, firestore

# Best practice: store service account key in an environment variable
# and load it, or use Application Default Credentials on Google Cloud.
# Replace 'path/to/your/serviceAccountKey.json' with actual path if not using env var.
SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY_PATH = os.environ.get('FIREBASE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY_PATH', '')

if SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY_PATH:
    cred = credentials.Certificate(SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY_PATH)
else:
    # Fallback for Google Cloud environments where ADC are available
    # or if you prefer not to use a file directly for local testing
    cred = credentials.ApplicationDefault()

# Initialize the app
firebase_admin.initialize_app(cred, {
    'projectId': os.environ.get('FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID', 'your-project-id'),
    'databaseURL': os.environ.get('FIREBASE_DATABASE_URL', 'https://your-project-id.firebaseio.com')
})

db = firestore.client()

# Add data to Firestore
doc_ref = db.collection('users').document('alovelace')
doc_ref.set({
    'first': 'Ada',
    'last': 'Lovelace',
    'born': 1815
})
print(f"Added document with ID: {doc_ref.id}")

# Read data from Firestore
users_ref = db.collection('users')
docs = users_ref.stream()

print("\nAll users:")
for doc in docs:
    print(f"{doc.id} => {doc.to_dict()}")

# Clean up (optional, for demonstration purposes)
# firebase_admin.delete_app(firebase_admin.get_app())

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