Rekognition shim (Python)

pip install sightradar-rekognition-shim

Published on PyPI as sightradar-rekognition-shim.

The shim mirrors Rekognition's method names and argument shapes and translates responses back into Rekognition-shaped dictionaries (FaceRecords, FaceMatches, Similarity, BoundingBox). Zero dependencies, pure standard library. It is Python only; other AWS SDKs have no shim.

The two-line changeCopy Anchor Link

import boto3

rek = boto3.client("rekognition", region_name="us-east-1")

rek.create_collection(CollectionId="event-2026")
rek.index_faces(
    CollectionId="event-2026",
    Image={"S3Object": {"Bucket": "my-bucket", "Name": "guest.jpg"}},
    ExternalImageId="guest-1",
)
res = rek.search_faces_by_image(
    CollectionId="event-2026",
    Image={"Bytes": open("selfie.jpg", "rb").read()},
    FaceMatchThreshold=90,
    MaxFaces=5,
)
for m in res["FaceMatches"]:
    print(m["Face"]["ExternalImageId"], m["Similarity"])

The rest of your call sites stay the same. client() with no arguments reads SIGHTRADAR_API_KEY.

Mapped operationsCopy Anchor Link

Honest differencesCopy Anchor Link

• Score scale. Rekognition uses 0 to 100; SightRadar uses cosine similarity 0 to 1. The shim converts both ways: FaceMatchThreshold=90 becomes 0.9, and a returned Similarity is scaled back to 0 to 100. The scale converts; the right operating point does not. Read choosing a threshold.
• Bounding boxes. Both sides use ratio boxes, so BoundingBox is populated on every FaceRecord and FaceDetail with no extra input (shim 0.3.0 and later). The raw SightRadar box is also kept under SightRadarBBox.
• Deletion is soft by default. Rekognition's DeleteCollection is final; SightRadar's default is a restorable soft delete with an asynchronous purge. Pass the shim-only Immediate=True, or Compliance=True for an audited erasure, to match Rekognition's finality.
• Image input. Image={"Bytes": ...} is uploaded as multipart. The shim also accepts {"URL": ...} and {"GcsKey": ...}, and maps {"S3Object": {"Bucket", "Name"}} to a public https://<bucket>.s3.amazonaws.com/<name> URL, which must be fetchable.
• compare_faces accepts URL and GcsKey images, not raw Bytes, matching the /v1/compare contract.
• Unsupported operations (detect_labels, detect_text, recognize_celebrities, video, user vectors, per-face delete) raise NotImplementedError naming the limitation. They never silently no-op.
• Nothing is lost. Every response includes a SightRadarRaw key with the untranslated payload.

ErrorsCopy Anchor Link

All transport and API failures raise SightRadarShimError with .message and .status_code.

NextCopy Anchor Link

The migration guide covers re-indexing, dual-writing and cut-over.