ibm-watson

library11.2.0pypypi✓ verified 83d ago

The official Python client library for IBM Watson services, including Speech to Text, Text to Speech, Assistant, Natural Language Understanding, and more. Current version 11.2.0, released January 2026. Maintained actively by IBM.

aws ai-ml llm-agents

pip install ibm-watson

github ↗package ↗homepage ↗

INSTALL

IMPORT

SIG · IBM-WATSON

ibm-watson

awspythonv11.2.0

Install

4.6s avg

Import

880ms

Disk

28MB

Pass rate

10/ 10

Env Coverage10 / 10

glibc

3.9–3.13

musl

3.9–3.13

Install & Compatibility

Where this runs

tested against v11.2.0 · pip install

no network on importno background threads

Install × environment matrix

Each cell = how many times install + import succeeded across repeated harness runs. Partial = flaky.
glibc = Debian/Ubuntu slim · musl = Alpine Linux

musl

py 3.10–3.910 runs

installs and imports cleanly · install 0.0s · import 0.924s · 29.1MB

glibc

py 3.10–3.910 runs

installs and imports cleanly · install 4.6s · import 0.836s · 30MB

28MB installed

● package 28MB

Code

Verified usage

Verified import paths — ran on the pinned version, not inferred.

SpeechToTextV1

✓ from ibm_watson import SpeechToTextV1

✗ from watson_developer_cloud import SpeechToTextV1

The old package name 'watson_developer_cloud' is deprecated. Use 'ibm_watson'.

AssistantV2

✓ from ibm_watson import AssistantV2

✗ from ibm_watson.assistant_v2 import AssistantV2

Direct import from ibm_watson is correct; the submodule path is outdated.

TextToSpeechV1

✓ from ibm_watson import TextToSpeechV1

✗ from ibm_watson.text_to_speech import TextToSpeechV1

Use top-level import from ibm_watson.

NaturalLanguageUnderstandingV1

✓ from ibm_watson import NaturalLanguageUnderstandingV1

✗ from ibm_watson.natural_language_understanding import NaturalLanguageUnderstandingV1

Top-level import is preferred.

ApiException

✓ from ibm_cloud_sdk_core import ApiException

✗ from ibm_watson import ApiException

ApiException lives in ibm_cloud_sdk_core, not ibm_watson.

Initialize Speech to Text service with IAM authentication and transcribe an audio file.

from ibm_watson import SpeechToTextV1 from ibm_cloud_sdk_core.authenticators import IAMAuthenticator authenticator = IAMAuthenticator('your-api-key') stt = SpeechToTextV1(authenticator=authenticator) stt.set_service_url('https://api.us-south.speech-to-text.watson.cloud.ibm.com/instances/your-instance-id') # Example: transcribe an audio file with open('audio.wav', 'rb') as audio_file: result = stt.recognize(audio=audio_file, content_type='audio/wav').get_result() print(result)

Debug

Known issues

breakingVersion 11.0.0+ requires 'environmentId' parameter in Assistant V2 'createSession' and 'deleteSession' methods.

fix

Add the 'environmentId' argument when calling create_session() or delete_session().

affects: >=11.0.0

breakingVersion 10.0.0 removed 'interim_results' and 'low_latency' WebSocket parameters from Speech to Text.

fix

Remove these parameters from your recognize_with_websocket() calls.

affects: >=10.0.0

breakingVersion 9.0.0 introduced breaking changes in Discovery V2 batch API endpoints.

fix

Update Discovery V2 code to use the new batches APIs (e.g., list_batches, get_batch).

affects: >=9.0.0

deprecatedOld import paths like 'from watson_developer_cloud import ...' are deprecated and removed in recent versions.

fix

Use 'from ibm_watson import ...' instead.

affects: >=7.0.0

gotchaSpeech to Text WebSocket streaming requires the 'websocket-client' package to be installed separately.

fix

Install websocket-client: pip install websocket-client. It is a dependency but may be missed in some environments.

affects: all

Errors

Common errors & fixes

ImportError: cannot import name 'ApiException' from 'ibm_watson'

ApiException is not part of ibm-watson; it is in ibm-cloud-sdk-core.

fix

Use: from ibm_cloud_sdk_core import ApiException

AttributeError: module 'ibm_watson' has no attribute 'SpeechToTextV1'

Possible import of Python file named 'ibm_watson.py' that shadows the package, or using an old import path.

fix

Ensure your script is not named 'ibm_watson.py'. Use: from ibm_watson import SpeechToTextV1

TypeError: createSession() missing 1 required positional argument: 'environment_id'

Assistant V2 session methods now require an 'environmentId' parameter since version 11.0.0.

fix

Call: assistant.create_session(assistant_id='...', environment_id='...')

WatsonApiException: Error: Unauthorized, Code: 401

Invalid API key or the authenticator is not configured correctly.

fix

Verify your API key and ensure you use IAMAuthenticator(api_key). Also check service URL region.

Upgrade

Version history

11.2.0latest on PyPI · released Jan 26, 2026

Audit

Dependencies

requestsrequiredUsed for HTTP API calls

python-dateutilrequiredDate/time handling

websocket-clientrequiredRequired for WebSocket-based services (STT, TTS)

ibm-cloud-sdk-corerequiredCore SDK for authentication and HTTP handling

Agent activity

28 hits · last 30 days

node

OpenAI (training)

Resources

githubhttps://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/python-sdk ↗

packagehttps://pypi.org/project/ibm-watson/ ↗

homepagehttps://www.ibm.com/watson ↗