Porting nicegui to micropython

[lchiesi]

Hi All,

I'm using nicegui package on RPi to create web interfaces. (https://nicegui.io/#demos)
I know about microdot working in micropython, however nicegui is much more feature rich and easy to use.

Is anyone interested in porting this library on micropython?
Do you think is possible given the dependencies and footprint?

(Of course removing from it native mode, limiting it to webserver mode)

[Josverl]

Do you think is possible given the dependencies and footprint?

Based on its dependencies I think its quite an aspiration, if not unrealistic.

[lchiesi]

I think following are the mandatory required dependencies:
uvicorn, fastapi, python-socketio, vbuild, jinja2, python-multipart, orjson, itsdangerous, aiofiles, ifaddr

Maybe also following are neded:
h11, python-engineio, aiohttp, certifi,

Following could be stripped out removing not essential functionalities:
docutils, httpx, pywebview, plotly, matplotlib, nicegui-highcharts, libsass, redis, watchfiles

[Josverl]

The modules you’ve listed — like uvicorn, fastapi, aiofiles, jinja2, and the rest — are full‑blown CPython packages. They rely heavily on features and resources (like CPythons asyncio capabilities, networking stacks, file systems, and C‑extensions) that are either absent, partially implemented, or simply too large for the constrained environments where MicroPython runs.
In short, these are big, complex frameworks designed for desktop/server Python, and they can’t be dropped into MicroPython as‑is.

That said, you can still achieve much of your intent by working with MicroPython‑friendly tools:

• [microdot](https://github.com/miguelgrinberg/microdot) – a super‑lightweight web framework inspired by Flask.
• picoweb – small and efficient, works well on ESP devices.
• uasyncio – MicroPython’s async library for cooperative multitasking.
• tinyweb – minimalist async HTTP server.
• mip – the built‑in MicroPython package manager to find other lightweight modules.

If your target device has more RAM and storage (e.g., Pico_W or ESP32 with PSRAM), you might combine uasyncio with Microdot and some templating (like utemplate) to build surprisingly rich interfaces without the heavy CPython overhead.

It’s not a one‑to‑one replacement for NiceGUI, but with the right approach you can get a responsive, low‑resource web UI running quite happily on MicroPython‑class hardware.