
To enforce the 100 character line limit in markdown files introduced in https://github.com/astral-sh/uv/pull/5635, and to automate the formatting of markdown files, i've added prettier and formatted our markdown files with it. I've excluded the changelog and the generated references documentation from this for having too many changes, but we can also include them. I'm not particular on which style we use. My main motivations are (major) not having to reflow markdown files myself anymore and (minor) consistence between all markdown files. I've chosen prettier for similar reason as we chose black, it's a single good style that's automated and shared in the community. I do prefer prettier's style of not breaking inside of a link name though. This PR is in two parts, the first adds prettier to CI and documents using it, while the second actually formats the docs. When merge conflicts arise, we can drop the last commit and regenerate it with `npx prettier --prose-wrap always --write BENCHMARKS.md CONTRIBUTING.md README.md STYLE.md docs/*.md docs/concepts/**/*.md docs/guides/**/*.md docs/pip/**/*.md`. --------- Co-authored-by: Zanie Blue <contact@zanie.dev>
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Tools
Tools are Python packages that provide command-line interfaces. Tools can be invoked without
installation using uvx
, in which case their dependencies are installed in a temporary virtual
environment isolated from the current project. Alternatively, tools can be installed with
uv tool install
, in which case their executables are placed in the PATH
— an isolated virtual
environment is still used but it is not treated as disposable.
!!! note
See the [tools guide](../guides/tools.md) for an introduction to working with the tools
interface — this document discusses details of tool management.
Tool environments
Tools are installed into virtual environments which are created in the uv tools directory. When
running tools with uvx
or uv tool run
, the virtual environments are stored in the uv cache
directory and are treated as disposable.
Tools directory
By default, the uv tools directory is named tools
and is in the uv application state directory,
e.g., ~/.local/share/uv/tools
. The location may be customized with the UV_TOOL_DIR
environment
variable.
To display the path to the tool installation directory:
$ uv tool dir
Tool environments are placed in a directory with the same name as the tool package, e.g.,
.../tools/<name>
.
Mutating tool environments
Tool environments are not intended to be mutated directly. It is strongly recommended never to
mutate a tool environment manually with a pip
operation.
Tool environments may be either mutated or re-created by subsequent uv tool install
operations.
To upgrade a single package in a tool environment:
$ uv tool install black --upgrade-package click
To upgrade all packages in a tool environment
$ uv tool install black --upgrade
To reinstall a single package in a tool environment:
$ uv tool install black --reinstall-package click
To reinstall all packages in a tool environment
$ uv tool install black --reinstall
All tool environment mutations will reinstall the tool executables, even if they have not changed.
Including additional dependencies
Additional packages can be included during tool invocations and installations:
$ uvx --with <extra-package> <tool-package>
$ uv tool install --with <extra-package> <tool-package>
The --with
option can be provided multiple times to include additional packages.
The --with
option supports package specifications, so a specific version can be requested:
$ uvx --with <extra-package>==<version> <tool-package>
If the requested version conflicts with the requirements of the tool package, package resolution will fail and the command will error.
Tool executables
Tool executables are all console entry points, script entry points, and binary scripts provided by a
Python package. Tool executables are symlinked into the bin
directory on Unix and copied on
Windows.
bin
directory
Executables are installed into the user's bin
directory following the XDG standard, e.g.,
~/.local/bin
. Unlike other directory schemes in uv, the XDG standard is used on all platforms
notably including Windows and macOS — there is no clear alternative location to place executables on
these platforms. The installation directory is determined from the first available environment
variable:
$XDG_BIN_HOME
$XDG_DATA_HOME/../bin
$HOME/.local/bin
Executables provided by dependencies of tool packages are not installed.
The PATH
The bin
directory must be in the PATH
variable for tool executables to be available from the
shell. If it is not in the PATH
, a warning will be displayed. The uv tool update-shell
command
can be used to add the bin
directory to the PATH
in common shell configuration files.
Overriding executables
Installation of tools will not overwrite executables in the bin
directory that were not previously
installed by uv. For example, if pipx
has been used to install a tool, uv tool install
will
fail. The --force
flag can be used to override this behavior.
uv tool run
vs uv run
The invocation uv tool run <name>
is nearly equivalent to:
$ uv run --no-project --with <name> -- <name>
However, there are a couple notable differences when using uv's tool interface:
- The
--with
option is not needed — the required package is inferred from the command name. - The temporary environment is cached in a dedicated location.
- The
--no-project
flag is not needed — tools are always run isolated from the project. - If a tool is already installed,
uv tool run
will use the installed version butuv run
will not.