> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.circle.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Getting started with the user-controlled wallets Python SDK

Use the [Python SDK](https://pypi.org/project/circle-user-controlled-wallets/)
to interact with
[Circle's User-Controlled Wallet APIs](/api-reference/wallets/user-controlled-wallets/create-user-with-pin-challenge),
which allow you to embed secure wallets in your applications and create
blockchain transactions using the Developer Services platform.

This page provides short examples of how to install and use the user-controlled
wallets SDK. For complete examples, see the [Sample Projects](/sample-projects)
page. For more information see the
[user-controlled wallets documentation](/wallets/user-controlled).

<Warning>
  **Pydantic v2 upgrade**

  Starting from major version 9, the Python SDK uses Pydantic v2. This change
  brings performance improvements, enhanced features, and bug fixes.

  If you are already using the SDK, and choose to upgrade to major version 9, you
  may need to make some changes to your code.

  For more information, see
  [Server-side SDK Pydantic v2 upgrade](/sdks/pydantic-v2-upgrade).
</Warning>

## Prerequisites

To use the Python SDK, ensure you have:

* Python installed.
* A [Circle Developer Console](https://console.circle.com) account
* An [API key](/build/keys) created in the Console:\
  **Keys → Create a key → API key → Standard Key**
* Your
  [Entity Secret registered](https://developers.circle.com/wallets/dev-controlled/register-entity-secret)

Although not a requirement for using the SDK, Circle recommends that you
[use a virtual environment](https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/installing-using-pip-and-virtual-environments/)
for development. A Python virtual environment is an isolated environment that
you can use to silo your project from the global Python environment.

## Install the SDK

Use the following command to install the SDK with
[pip](https://pypi.org/project/pip/):

```shell theme={null}
pip install circle-user-controlled-wallets
```

## User-controlled wallets client

To start using the SDK, you first need to configure a client and initialize it
with your API key.

### Import the client

The following example shows how to import the client and configure it to use
your API key:

```python theme={null}
from circle.web3 import utils

client = utils.init_user_controlled_wallets_client(
api_key="<your_api_key>"
)
```

### Create a transaction

The following example shows how to create a transaction using the client:

```python theme={null}
import uuid
from circle.web3 import user_controlled_wallets

# generate a user id
user_id = str(uuid.uuid4())

# create user
api_instance = user_controlled_wallets.UsersAndPinsApi(client)
try:
    request = user_controlled_wallets.CreateUserRequest(user_id=user_id)
    api_instance.create_user(request)
except user_controlled_wallets.ApiException as e:
    print("Exception when calling UsersAndPinsApi->create_user: %s\n" % e)

# get user
try:
    response = api_instance.get_user(id=user_id)
    print(response.data)
except user_controlled_wallets.ApiException as e:
    print("Exception when calling UsersAndPinsApi->get_user: %s\n" % e)

# get user token
try:
    request = user_controlled_wallets.GenerateUserTokenRequest.from_dict({"userId": user_id})
    response = api_instance.get_user_token(request)
    print(response.data.user_token)
except user_controlled_wallets.ApiException as e:
    print("Exception when calling UsersAndPinsApi->get_user_token: %s\n" % e)
```

## Client configuration options

The client for the user-controlled wallets SDK accepts the following
configuration parameters:

| **Option**   | **Required?** | **Description**                                                                                 |
| ------------ | ------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `api_key`    | Yes           | The API key used to authenticate requests to the Circle API.                                    |
| `host`       | No            | The base URL that overrides the default API URL of `https://api.circle.com/v1/w3s`.             |
| `user_agent` | No            | Custom user agent request header. If provided, it's added before the default user agent header. |