How to migrate from requirements.txt to pyproject.toml with uv

Start by installing uv if you haven’t already.

Steps

Create a pyproject.toml in your existing project:

$ uv init --bare

This creates a minimal pyproject.toml without sample code.

Import your existing requirements into the project:

$ uv add -r requirements.txt

This command:

• Reads dependencies from requirements.txt
• Adds them to pyproject.toml
• Creates/updates the lockfile
• Installs dependencies in the project environment

If you have separate requirements-dev.txt:

$ uv add --dev -r requirements-dev.txt

Check that all dependencies were imported correctly:

$ uv pip freeze

Compare this output with your original requirements files.

Once verified, remove the old requirements files:

$ rm requirements.txt requirements-dev.txt

With pyproject.toml, manage dependencies using:

# Add new runtime dependency
$ uv add requests

# Add development dependency
$ uv add --dev pytest

# Remove dependency
$ uv remove requests

Learn More:

• uv project documentation
• Python packaging standards