Frequently Asked Questions

What version of Python does Briefcase support?

Python 3.5 or higher.

What platforms does Briefcase support?

Briefcase currently has support for:

  • macOS (producing DMG files, or raw .app files)

  • Linux (producing AppImage files)

  • Windows (producing MSI installers)

  • iOS (producing Xcode projects)

  • Android (producing Gradle projects)

Support for other some other packaging formats (e.g., NSIS installers for Windows; Snap and Flatpak installers for Linux) and other operating systems (e.g., tvOS, watchOS, WearOS) are on our roadmap.

Briefcase’s platform support is built on a plugin system, so if you want to add support for a custom platform, you can do so; or, you can contribute the backend to Briefcase itself.

How do I detect if my app is running in a Briefcase-packaged container?

Briefcase adds a PEP566 metadata file when it installs your app’s code. The metadata can be retrieved at runtime as described in the Accessing Briefcase packaging metadata at runtime how-to. You can determine if your app was packaged with Briefcase by testing for the existence of the Briefcase-Version tag:

in_briefcase = 'Briefcase-Version' in metadata