In this poster, I will present VIP and SPECIAL, two open-source packages that I maintain and develop, which aim to provide the tools for the detection and spectral characterization (respectively) of low-mass companions in high-contrast imaging data. For both packages, I will summarize their architecture, recent inclusions, and exemple applications of these toolboxes to recent discoveries in the field of young planet detection and characterization. Both packages include Jupyter notebook tutorials, are instrument-agnostic and well-documented.