Spade blocks can be written in any of five supported languages, giving your team the freedom to use the best tool for each job.
Supported Languages
- Python — Executed via
uv run, with full access to the Python ecosystem - R — Executed via
Rscript, ideal for statistical analysis and data visualization - Go — Compiled to a single binary with subcommand support
- Rust — Compiled to a single binary for maximum performance
- TypeScript — Bundled and executed via Bun for fast JavaScript-based processing
The Handler Pattern
Every block follows the same simple pattern regardless of language: define a handler function that accepts typed inputs and returns typed outputs. The Spade library for each language handles parameter loading, input reading, and output writing automatically.
from spade import run, RasterFile
def handler(source: RasterFile) -> RasterFile:
# Your processing logic here
return RasterFile(path=result)
if __name__ == "__main__":
run(handler)Type-Safe I/O
Spade's type system includes:
- RasterFile — Georeferenced raster data (GeoTIFF, etc.)
- VectorFile — Vector geometry data (GeoJSON, Shapefile, etc.)
- TabularFile — Tabular data (CSV, Parquet, etc.)
- Collections — Variable-length ordered sets of any file type
- Scalars — JSON-serializable values passed via parameters
The library validates types at runtime, catching errors early before they cascade through your pipeline.