I got an Anti Virus message when installing using pyfa. Is pyfa safe?

Of course it's safe! (and of course, that's what the hacker would say! 😛)

The problem with pyfa with regards to anti-virus software is that it's a community-based application that is only downloaded by a subset of that community. Because there's relatively few users as a whole using it, there are instances when Windows, or anti-virus software, warns you that pyfa might be a threat. This is primarily due to the fact that they sometimes don't know enough about the program to give it a thumbs up, so they err on the side of caution (anti-virus software is notorious for false positives).

Someone else that is more knowledgeable can edit and write up the specifics on why this happens.

But is it safe? Absolutely. All the code that goes into pyfa, as well as packaging up its builds for Windows and Mac, is available for review in the GitHub repository. There aren't any tools that I use that aren't known or documented. If you know Python, or at least can follow the flow of a programming language, you can determine for yourself that there isn't any funny business going on in the background.

If you don't know how to read the code, then you can follow these facts: pyfa has been in development for over 9 years, with many dozens of contributors. It has always been, and always will be, open source. It's used by thousands of EVE players. It's even used by EVE Developers, sometimes for personal fitting needs, and sometimes to hack various stats to see what it might look like if they implement those stats in the game. Some EVE developers have even contributed code to pyfa in the past. If there was any threat built into the code, someone would have found and reported it throughout the EVE Universe.

I always implore folks to be cautious around programs they don't know. If you're in a situation where you're unsure of an error that your anti-virus is producing with respect to pyfa, please send me an email: sable.blitzmann@gmail.com and I can answer any and all of your questions.