python-automation-tutorial

Python Automation: Full Tutorial for Beginners

Video: https://youtu.be/Oq0RlbCNMqA
Written version: https://cloudexplainers.com/python-automation-full-tutorial-for-beginners/

Everything below ran for real in the video. Run it in a throwaway machine or container, never on a computer you care about.

Lab files

The machine the video used, as files you can build it from:

• lab/Dockerfile
• lab/make_files.py
• lab/shop-bot/excel.py
• lab/shop-bot/invoices.py
• lab/shop-bot/main.py
• lab/shop-bot/portal.py
• lab/shop-bot/read_pdf.py
• lab/shop-bot/report.py
• lab/shop-bot/send.py
• lab/shop-bot/stock.py
• lab/shop-bot/tidy.py
• lab/supplier.py

Build and open it (Docker):

docker build -t lab lab
docker run -it --rm lab bash

Commands, in the order the video runs them

Your weekly chores

# ana@laptop:~/shop-bot$
uv run main.py

Set up with uv

# ana@laptop:~$
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
source $HOME/.local/bin/env
uv --version
uv init --no-package shop-bot
cd shop-bot
# ana@laptop:~/shop-bot$
ls -A
uv run main.py
uv add pandas openpyxl pypdf httpx playwright
cat pyproject.toml
ls -A

Files with pathlib

# ana@laptop:~/shop-bot$
ls ~/Downloads | wc -l
ls ~/Downloads | head -4
ls ~/Downloads | tail -4
cat tidy.py
uv run tidy.py
ls ~/Downloads
ls ~/shop ~/shop/orders

CSV and Excel

# ana@laptop:~/shop-bot$
head -4 ~/shop/orders/2026-10/orders-2026-10-01.csv
cat report.py
uv run report.py
cat excel.py
uv run excel.py

Reading PDFs

# ana@laptop:~/shop-bot$
cat read_pdf.py
uv run read_pdf.py ~/shop/invoices/invoice-HL-1042.pdf
cat invoices.py
uv run invoices.py

An API with httpx

# ana@laptop:~/shop-bot$
cat stock.py
uv run stock.py
export SUPPLIER_KEY=demo-key-123
uv run stock.py

A website with Playwright

# ana@laptop:~/shop-bot$
uv run playwright install --with-deps chromium
head -n 17 portal.py
tail -n +18 portal.py
export PORTAL_PASSWORD=leaf-and-kettle
uv run portal.py
head -3 ~/shop/prices.csv

Sending email

# ana@laptop:~/shop-bot$
head -n 20 send.py
tail -n +21 send.py
uv run send.py
grep -E '^(From|To|Subject|Content-Disposition):' /srv/mail/inbox.log

On a schedule

# ana@laptop:~/shop-bot$
cat main.py
which uv
cat cron.txt
crontab cron.txt
date
cat bot.log
cat .env
cat cron.txt
crontab cron.txt
cat bot.log
grep -c '^Subject:' /srv/mail/inbox.log
crontab -l

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From Cloud Explainers. Lab files are MIT licensed (see the repository's LICENSE).