build

A simple, correct Python build frontend.

See the documentation for more information.

Installation

build can be installed via pip or an equivalent via:

$ pip install build

Usage

$ python -m build

This will build the package in an isolated environment, generating a source-distribution and wheel in the directory dist/. See the documentation for full information. Build is also available via the command line as pyproject-build once installed.

Common arguments

• --sdist (-s): Produce just an SDist
• --wheel (-w): Produce just a wheel
• --metadata: Produce just the metadata as JSON. Cannot be used with --sdist/--wheel.
• -C<option>=<value>: A Config-setting, the PEP 517 way of passing options to a backend. Can be passed multiple times. Matching options will make a list. Note that setuptools has very limited support.
• --config-json=<value>: An alternative way to pass in complex config settings as JSON strings. Can't be used with -C.
• --installer: Pick an installer for the isolated build (pip or uv).
• --no-isolation (-n): Disable build isolation.
• --skip-dependency-check (-x): Disable dependency checking when not isolated; this should be done if some requirements or version ranges are not required for non-isolated builds.
• --outdir (-o): The output directory (defaults to dist)

Some common combinations of arguments:

• --sdist --wheel (-sw): Produce and SDist and a wheel, both from the source distribution. The default (if no flag is passed) is to build an SDist and then build a wheel from the SDist.
• -nx: Disable build isolation and dependency checking. Identical to pip and uv's --no-build-isolation flag.
• --metadata | jq -r .version: get the version in a bash-like environment.

Integration with other tools

pipx

If you use pipx, such as in GitHub Actions, the following command will download and run build in one step:

$ pipx run build

uv

If you want to use uv to speed up the virtual environment creation, you can use --installer=uv. You can get a Python wheel for uv with the [uv] extra. For example, using pipx like above:

$ pipx run 'build[uv]' --installer uv

If you already have uv, you don't need the extra. For example:

$ uvx --from build pyproject-build --installer uv

cibuildwheel

If you are using cibuildwheel, build is integrated and the default builder in 3.0+. If you want to use uv as the installer, you can use:

[tool.cibuildwheel]
build-frontend = "build[uv]"

(Be sure to pre-install uv before running cibuildwheel for this one!)

Conda-forge

On conda-forge, this package is called python-build.

Code of Conduct

Everyone interacting in the build's codebase, issue trackers, chat rooms, and mailing lists is expected to follow the PSF Code of Conduct.