I Built a Zero-Dependency Python Library for OTP Codes

#python #opensource #automation #productivity

The Problem

Every automation project hits the same wall: OTP verification.

You're building a bot, a scraper, an automation tool — and then you need to verify an account. GitHub, Google, Discord, OpenAI... they all want a code sent to your email.

Your options:

SMS gateways — cost money, rate limited
Third-party APIs — another dependency, another failure point
Manual copy-paste — defeats the purpose of automation

The Solution: otp-gateway

otp-gateway reads OTP codes directly from your inbox via IMAP.

pip install otp-gateway

No API keys. No external services. Just IMAP.

Quick Start

from otp_gateway import OTPGateway, OTPConfig

config = OTPConfig(
    imap_email="you@gmail.com",
    imap_password="your-app-password",
    domain="yourdomain.com",
)

gw = OTPGateway(config)

# Generate an alias for the platform
alias = gw.generate_alias("github")
print(alias)  # "github-a7k2m3@yourdomain.com"

# Use this email to sign up, then wait for the OTP
result = gw.wait_for_otp(alias, timeout=90)
print(result["value"])  # "847291"

Features

13 OTP extraction patterns — digits, alphanumeric, multi-language
30+ platform support — GitHub, Google, Discord, OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, Azure, and more
Verification link extraction — not just codes, but links too
Alias generation — create unique emails for each platform
Smart dedup — never returns the same OTP twice
CLI included — otp-gateway wait user@domain.com
Zero dependencies — only Python stdlib

Why Zero Dependencies?

In automation, every dependency is a risk:

Version conflicts break your pipeline
Supply chain attacks compromise your system
Deployment complexity slows you down

otp-gateway uses only Python's standard library. Copy the otp_gateway/ folder into your project and it works.

CLI Usage

# Wait for an OTP
$ otp-gateway wait github@yourdomain.com
⏳ Waiting for OTP at github@yourdomain.com...
✅ OTP found: 847291 (GitHub)

# Check for recent OTPs
$ otp-gateway check --email user@domain.com --since 5m

# Generate an alias
$ otp-gateway alias github
github-a7k2m3@yourdomain.com

Supported Platforms

GitHub, Google, Discord, OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, AWS, Azure, Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare, DigitalOcean, HuggingFace, Stripe, and 15+ more. The pattern library is easily extensible.