# Bernát Gábor's Recap of the 2026 Python Packaging Summit

The [2026 Python Packaging Summit](https://us.pycon.org/2026/events/packaging-summit/) ran on Friday, May 15 in Long Beach. Bernát Gábor's [hour-by-hour recap](https://bernat.tech/posts/pycon-us-2026-packaging-summit-recap/) is the long read; the pre-summit [preview](https://pydevtools.com/blog/python-packaging-summit-2026.md) is the companion. Worth reading the whole thing if you ship or install Python packages.

The handbook-relevant headlines:

- [Wheel 2.0](https://pydevtools.com/handbook/reference/wheel.md) was restructured into a small core PEP plus optional sub-PEPs, with [Zstandard compression](https://peps.python.org/pep-0784/) as the first sub-PEP. Roughly 25% smaller wheels on the top 1,000 PyPI projects. Broad adoption is years out.
- Mike Fiedler laid out PyPI's safety math: project creation up 3.1x and upload bytes up 3.5x since 2024, against one funded full-time safety engineer. [Trusted publishing](https://pydevtools.com/handbook/explanation/why-use-trusted-publishing-for-pypi.md) adoption climbed from ~10% to ~30%.
- [PEP 772](https://pydevtools.com/handbook/explanation/what-is-pep-772.md) (Packaging Council) was accepted. First elections this fall, aligned with the PSF board cycle, with PSF voting membership required to nominate or be nominated.
- PEP 803 defines `abi3t`, a stable ABI for [free-threaded CPython](https://pydevtools.com/handbook/explanation/what-is-pep-703.md). A single wheel can target both interpreters via a compound `cp315-abi3.abi3t` tag.
- Mobile wheels work end to end ([cibuildwheel](https://pydevtools.com/handbook/reference/cibuildwheel.md) supports Android and iOS) but adoption is small: 11 of the top 360 packages ship Android wheels, 9 ship iOS.

## Learn more

- [Bernát Gábor's full recap](https://bernat.tech/posts/pycon-us-2026-packaging-summit-recap/)
- [HackMD collaborative summit notes](https://hackmd.io/@jezdez/pycon2026-packaging-summit/edit)
- [The 2026 Packaging Summit Returns to PyCon US](https://pydevtools.com/blog/python-packaging-summit-2026.md) (pre-summit preview)
- [PEP 777, Wheel 2.0](https://peps.python.org/pep-0777/)
- [PEP 803, abi3t](https://peps.python.org/pep-0803/)