Integrate Real-Time Messaging with Azure Web PubSub

Azure Web PubSub Service SDK for Python provides real-time messaging over WebSocket connections at scale, split into a server-side service SDK and a client SDK for Python WebSocket clients. The service client authenticates via a connection string or DefaultAzureCredential, scoped to a specific hub.

get_client_access_token() generates a connection URL, optionally scoped to a user ID, specific roles (like webpubsub.sendToGroup or webpubsub.joinLeaveGroup), and initial group memberships. Sending covers broadcasting to all connections, targeting a specific user (reaching every connection that user has open), a group, or a single connection, with either plain text or JSON content. Group management adds or removes users or individual connections from a group. Connection management checks whether a connection, user, or group currently exists, and can close a specific connection (with a reason) or all of a user's connections at once. Fine-grained permissions can be granted, revoked, or checked per connection and target (for example, whether a connection is allowed to join/leave a specific group). The client SDK connects using the access token URL and registers event handlers for connected, server-message, and group-message events, then sends messages once open. Both the service client and its sends have an async counterpart for use in async applications.

Use it when you need to broadcast or target real-time messages to many WebSocket-connected clients at scale - notifications, live updates, chat, or collaborative features - rather than managing raw WebSocket connections and fan-out yourself. Scope client tokens with roles and short lifetimes rather than issuing broad, long-lived access, per the skill's own security guidance.

Input is a message (text or JSON) plus a target (all connections, a user, a group, or a connection), or a client-token request. Output is a delivered message, a client access token/URL, or a boolean existence/permission check. Install the SDK(s) you need:

### Service SDK (server-side)
pip install azure-messaging-webpubsubservice

### Client SDK (for Python WebSocket clients)
pip install azure-messaging-webpubsubclient

Its own best practices: use roles to limit what a client's token can do, use groups for targeted rather than broadcast messaging, generate short-lived tokens for security, address by user ID to reach a user across all their connections, handle reconnection logic in client applications, use JSON content type for structured data, and close connections gracefully with a stated reason.

It's the azure-messaging-webpubsubservice (server) and azure-messaging-webpubsubclient (client) packages paired with azure-identity for DefaultAzureCredential authentication against an Azure Web PubSub Service hub.

Python developers building real-time, WebSocket-based features - notifications, live updates, chat, or collaboration - who need server-side broadcast/targeted messaging plus a matching Python WebSocket client, without managing connection fan-out themselves.