[Python] Detecting changes to dictionary keys in Python without continuous polling [closed]

I am working on a configuration manager in python that loads settings into a dictionary and updates them dynamically during runtime. The issue I am facing is detecting when keys inside the dictionary change.

My approach is continuously polling every 500ms and comparing dictionary snapshots. This feels inefficient and does not reliably catch rapid sequence updates. I want it to work for code like:

config = {"mode": "idle"} for i in range(10): config["mode"] = f"state_{i}" time.sleep(0.1)

I have done research and found:

property setter / descriptors only work for attributes, not dictionary key assignments.

MutableMapping subclassing still requires overriding setitem, but this doesn’t intercept nested dictionaries.

watchdog observes file-system events, not in-memory dictionary updates.

I would need guidance whether sys.setprofile() or sys.settrace() is appropriate for monitoring dictionary value writes, or whether there is a more efficient approach.

FYI this configuration dictionary may contain deeply nested structures.

Continue reading...