SNAKES is a Python library that provides all then necessary to define and execute many sorts of Petri nets, in particular those of the PBC and M-nets family. Its main aim is to be a general Petri net library, being able to cope with most Petri nets models, and providing the researcher with a tool to quickly prototype its new ideas. SNAKES should be suitable to provide the data model for editors or simulators; actually, any editor that use SNAKES may also be a simulator as SNAKES can execute any net.

A key feature of SNAKES is the ability to use arbitrary Python objects as tokens and arbitrary Python expressions in many points, for instance in transitions guards or arcs outgoing of transitions.

Another important feature of SNAKES is the plugin system that allows to extend the features and work with specialised classes of Petri nets. For instance, plugins are provided to draw nets, or to compose them using the various PBC operations.