ASGI, Without the GIL
Free-threading native. Streaming-first. Pure Python.
Pounce is a pure-Python ASGI server designed from scratch for Python 3.14t. Instead of fork-based worker models, pounce runs N worker threads sharing a single interpreter — leveraging free-threading for true parallelism without memory duplication.
import pounce
pounce.run("myapp:app")
Why Pounce?
Real OS threads, not processes. N workers share one interpreter, one copy of the application, one set of frozen config — zero synchronization for immutable data.
The response pipeline sends body chunks immediately to the socket. Chunked HTML, event streams, AI token delivery — no buffering, instant delivery.
First ASGI server with zero-dependency zstd compression via Python 3.14's stdlib (PEP 784). Server-Timing headers auto-injected for built-in observability.
No Rust, no C extensions in the server core. One dependency (h11). Debuggable, hackable, readable. Optional extras for HTTP/2, WebSocket, and TLS.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Pounce | Uvicorn | Granian | Hypercorn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parallelism | Threads (nogil) | Processes (fork) | Rust I/O + Python | Processes |
| Memory model | Shared (1 copy) | Duplicated (N copies) | Mixed | Duplicated |
| Free-threading | Native | Compatible | Partial | No |
| HTTP/2 | Optional (h2) | No | Yes | Yes |
| WebSocket | Optional (wsproto) | Optional | Yes | Yes |
| Compression | zstd + gzip (stdlib) | No | No | No |
| Server-Timing | Built-in | No | No | No |
| Dependencies | 1 (h11) | 2+ | Rust binary | 3+ |
Protocols
| Protocol | Backend | Install |
|---|---|---|
| HTTP/1.1 | h11 (pure Python, default) | built-in |
| HTTP/1.1 | httptools (C-accelerated) | pounce[fast] |
| HTTP/2 | h2 (stream multiplexing, priority) | pounce[h2] |
| WebSocket | wsproto (including WS over H2) | pounce[ws] |
| TLS | stdlib ssl + truststore | pounce[tls] |
| All | Everything above (except httptools) | pounce[full] |
The Bengal Ecosystem
purr Content runtime (connects everything)
⟩⟩· pounce ASGI server (serves apps) ← You are here
chirp Web framework (serves HTML)
kida Template engine (renders HTML)
patitas Markdown parser (parses content)
rosettes Syntax highlighter (highlights code)
bengal Static site gen (builds sites)