Python is ubiquitous for those of us coming into programming from academic research backgrounds, both for generating scientific data and for analysing it. Of course, modern data-driven research only thrives when data is FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) and traditional relational databases and APIs for interacting with them are a tried-and-true method of ensuring FAIRness. (And in the age of machine learning, the machines need things to be FAIR arguably even more than we do…)

“But I’m a data scientist/computational chemist/bioinformatician!” you protest. “I just (ab)use databases using Python, I don’t make them for someone else to use!” Understandable, but the barrier to entry may be much lower than you think, thanks to two related Python libraries: SQLModel and FastAPI. These powerful tools by developer Sebastián Ramírez (@tiangolo on GitHub) work in concert to make relational databases and APIs much easier to implement for Python natives. Let’s see how they can help…