https://danpassaro.dev/blog/Recent content in My Blog on Dan PassaroHugoen-usSun, 20 Sep 2026 15:27:12 -0400https://danpassaro.dev/blog/new-to-python-packaging-avoid-hatch/Sun, 20 Sep 2026 15:27:12 -0400https://danpassaro.dev/blog/new-to-python-packaging-avoid-hatch/<p>I recently built <a href="https://codeberg.org/dan-passaro/gql-builder">a Python library</a> for the first time in a while, and to make it available in PyPI I followed <a href="https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/tutorials/packaging-projects/">the official Python packaging guide</a>. But it turns out there&rsquo;s some rough edges in the suggested tools.</p> <p>Namely, the build backend <a href="https://hatch.pypa.io/">hatch</a> puts <strong>all</strong> the files in the project directory into the built sdist, except from some files it chooses to exclude, which led to a gitignored file as well as VCS metadata getting packaged and uploaded to PyPI. This really surprised me, and I think most Python users new to packaging would be better served by choosing a conservative build backend like <a href="https://docs.astral.sh/uv/concepts/build-backend/">uv_build</a>, which puts only the Python source modules and some specific project-level files into the sdist.</p>