This module embeds a fully functional CLIPS engine into Python, and gives the developer a more Python-compliant interface to CLIPS without cutting down on functionalities. In fact CLIPS is compiled into the module in its entirety, and most API functions are bound to Python methods. However the direct bindings to the CLIPS library (implemented as the _clips submodule) are not described here: each function is described by an appropriate documentation string, and accessible by means of the help() function or through the pydoc tool. Each direct binding maps to an API provided function. For a detailed reference for these functions see Clips Reference Guide Vol. II: Advanced Programming Guide, available for download at the CLIPS website.

PyCLIPS is also capable of generating CLIPS text and binary files: this allows the user to interact with sessions of the CLIPS system itself. An important thing to know, is that PyCLIPS implements CLIPS as a separated engine: in the CLIPS module implementation, CLIPS ``lives'' in its own memory space, allocates its own objects. The module only provides a way to send information and commands to this engine and to retrieve results from it.