Interest in taking up project Root in Free Theaded Python for GSOC 2026

Newbie
1

Hi
For GSOC 2026 - I wanted to frame a proposal for working on Root in Free Threaded Python.
I have understand the root code flow, and the different ROOT related features. I was able to successfully clone and go through the code.
I have worked on CPython in the past when contributing to the Python codebase and with PyO2 when contributing to cryptography library.

Could I draft a proposal for this?

2

Welcome to the ROOT Forum! And thanks for your interest in the ROOT and Python ecosystem. Maybe @vpadulan can give you some hints.

3

Thanks for pointing me to the right person.

4

Hi @Sanchayan_Ghosh, thanks for showing interest in the Free-Threaded Python project.

We welcome new proposals to improve ROOT and the Python Interface. ROOT uses cppyy (bindings/pyroot/cppyy folder) as its core C/C++ bindings engine to provide interfaces to underlying C/C++ types. You should try to run the cppyy test in ROOT. Try attaching the debugger and walking through the code to familiarise yourself. Let me know your findings.
In parallel, you can work on the draft proposal.

5

Hey thanks for the advice .
I was able to run the cppyy conversion test under root.

test -R pyunittests-bindings-pyroot-cppyy-cppyy-test-conversions -V -N

Following through with the commands

I was able to step through the conversion code under pyroot - cppyy

With the help of debugger and LLM - I was ab le to step through gConvFactories which cppyy goes through everytime it parses through the python test_conversion to perform a type conversion.

I have some understanding of the bindings having worked on CPython types before.
Parallel to exploring more into the underlying cppyy types and more such bindings, can I work on the draft proposal as well?

6

Sorry for the late response.
The interesting part that is relevant for this project is CPyCppyy (written in C/C++) and cppyy (written mostly in Python).
Try to understand the code base as much as possible; it will help you write a better proposal.
You can write a draft proposal and share it with me privately (I will forward/cc it to relevant people). We can iterate over the proposal in some private channel(s).