What is the Python Packaging User Guide?

The Python Packaging User Guide (PyPUG) is the official packaging documentation hosted at packaging.python.org. It documents the tools maintained by the Python Packaging Authority (PyPA), the standards that govern Python packaging, and the recommended workflows for building and distributing packages on PyPI. It is conservative by design and changes slowly relative to the broader ecosystem.

Does the Python Packaging User Guide cover uv, Poetry, or PDM?

Only in passing. The guide focuses on PyPA-maintained tools (pip, build, twine, setuptools, virtualenv) and on standards-level material that applies regardless of tool. Workflow guides for non-PyPA tools like uv, Poetry, and PDM live in those projects' own documentation.

Is the Python Packaging User Guide the same as the PyPA?

No. PyPA is the working group that maintains a set of packaging tools and the guide. The Python Packaging User Guide is one artifact PyPA publishes. The two terms are often confused because the guide is hosted at packaging.python.org and the PyPA at pypa.io.

Python Packaging User Guide

Q: Who maintains the Python Packaging User Guide?

The guide is maintained by the Python Packaging Authority (PyPA) and, since April 2026, falls under the formal authority of the Python Packaging Council established by PEP 772. The repository lives at github.com/pypa/packaging.python.org and accepts community pull requests.

by Tim Hopper

Packaging

The Python Packaging User Guide (PyPUG) is the official documentation site for packaging, publishing, and installing Python projects. It is published at packaging.python.org and maintained by the Python Packaging Authority (PyPA).

Note

Since April 2026, the guide falls under the authority of the Python Packaging Council established by PEP 772. The source lives at github.com/pypa/packaging.python.org and accepts community pull requests.

What the guide covers

Tutorials and how-to guides built around PyPA-maintained tools: pip, build, twine, setuptools, virtualenv, and pipx
The packaging specifications index, including the PEP 517 build-system interface, PEP 621 project metadata, PEP 503 simple repository API, PEP 735 dependency groups, and PEP 751 pylock.toml lockfiles
Reference material for pyproject.toml and the wheel and sdist distribution formats
Guidance on uploading to PyPI and configuring trusted publishing

What the guide does not cover

Workflow documentation for non-PyPA tools such as uv, Poetry, PDM, Hatch, or Pixi. Those tools maintain their own documentation
Editorial recommendations for which tool to choose. The guide lists tool recommendations but is conservative by design and slow to take strong positions on newer tools
Conda-family tooling and the scientific-Python distribution stack (conda, conda-forge, Pixi), which operate outside the PyPA ecosystem

For background on why the guide reads the way it does, see Why doesn’t the authoritative Python packaging guide mention the best thing that’s happened to Python packaging?.

Learn More

Python Packaging User Guide
PyPUG source repository on GitHub
Python Packaging Authority (handbook explainer)
What is PEP 772? (Packaging Council governance)
Packaging specifications index (the canonical list of standards)

Last updated on May 9, 2026

pytest requirements.txt

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