Does Flask Work With Strapi?
Flask and Strapi work seamlessly together as a backend-frontend separation pattern, with Flask consuming Strapi's REST/GraphQL APIs.
Quick Facts
How Flask Works With Strapi
Flask and Strapi are complementary tools in a headless CMS architecture. Strapi runs as your content management and API layer (Node.js process), while Flask serves as your application backend (Python process), consuming Strapi's REST or GraphQL APIs via HTTP. This is a clean separation of concerns: Strapi handles content modeling, admin UI, and API generation, while Flask focuses on business logic, authentication, and application-specific endpoints.
Developers typically run both services independently—Strapi on port 1337, Flask on 5000—and Flask makes authenticated requests to Strapi's API endpoints. Flask can cache responses, add middleware, or transform Strapi data before serving to clients. The experience is straightforward because you're just making HTTP requests; Flask's `requests` library handles communication elegantly. Authentication often uses Strapi's JWT token system, which Flask validates server-side.
Architecturally, this works for content-heavy applications, blogs, e-commerce platforms, and multi-channel content delivery. The main consideration is managing two separate processes and databases, though Docker makes deployment clean. Network latency between services is negligible in most deployments.
Best Use Cases
Flask consuming Strapi API with JWT auth
pip install flask requests python-dotenvfrom flask import Flask, jsonify
import requests
from os import getenv
app = Flask(__name__)
STRAPI_URL = getenv('STRAPI_URL', 'http://localhost:1337')
STRAPI_TOKEN = getenv('STRAPI_API_TOKEN')
headers = {
'Authorization': f'Bearer {STRAPI_TOKEN}',
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}
@app.route('/api/posts', methods=['GET'])
def get_posts():
try:
response = requests.get(
f'{STRAPI_URL}/api/articles?populate=*',
headers=headers,
timeout=5
)
response.raise_for_status()
return jsonify(response.json())
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
return jsonify({'error': str(e)}), 502
@app.route('/api/posts/<int:post_id>', methods=['GET'])
def get_post(post_id):
response = requests.get(
f'{STRAPI_URL}/api/articles/{post_id}?populate=*',
headers=headers
)
return jsonify(response.json())
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=True)Known Issues & Gotchas
CORS errors when Flask frontend tries to access Strapi directly
Fix: Configure Strapi's CORS settings in config/middleware.js to allow your Flask domain, or proxy Strapi requests through Flask
JWT token expiration requires refresh token handling logic in Flask
Fix: Store refresh tokens securely in Flask session/cache and implement token refresh endpoints that re-authenticate with Strapi
Running two separate Node.js and Python processes adds deployment complexity
Fix: Use Docker containers or orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker Compose) to manage both services together
Strapi database changes don't automatically sync with Flask caches
Fix: Implement Strapi webhooks that call Flask endpoints to invalidate caches when content updates
Alternatives
- •Next.js with Strapi—keeps everything in JavaScript ecosystem; better for full-stack React applications
- •Django with Wagtail—uses Python end-to-end; tighter integration if you prefer monolithic approach
- •FastAPI with Strapi—Python alternative with better async performance; good for high-throughput APIs
Resources
Related Compatibility Guides
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