bazel-runfiles library

This is a Bazel Runfiles lookup library for Bazel-built Python binaries and tests.

Learn about runfiles: read Runfiles guide or watch Fabian's BazelCon talk.

Importing

The Runfiles API is available from two sources, a direct Bazel target, and a pypi package.

Pure Bazel imports

Depend on this runfiles library from your build rule, like you would other third-party libraries:

py_binary(
    name = "my_binary",
    # ...
    deps = ["@rules_python//python/runfiles"],
)

Import the runfiles library:

    from python.runfiles import Runfiles

Pypi imports

Add the 'bazel-runfiles' dependency along with other third-party dependencies, for example in your requirements.txt file.

Depend on this runfiles library from your build rule, like you would other third-party libraries:

load("@pip_deps//:requirements.bzl", "requirement")

py_binary(
    name = "my_binary",
    ...
    deps = [requirement("bazel-runfiles")],
)

Import the runfiles library:
```
from runfiles import Runfiles
```

Typical Usage

Create a Runfiles object and use Rlocation to look up runfile paths:

r = Runfiles.Create()
# ...
with open(r.Rlocation("my_workspace/path/to/my/data.txt"), "r") as f:
    contents = f.readlines()
    # ...

Here my_workspace is the name you specified via module(name = "...") in your MODULE.bazel file (with --enable_bzlmod, default as of Bazel 7) or workspace(name = "...") in WORKSPACE (with --noenable_bzlmod).

The code above creates a manifest- or directory-based implementation based on the environment variables in os.environ. See Runfiles.Create() for more info.

Alternatively, Runfiles.CreateOrRaise() can be used to raise an error instead of returning None if runfiles cannot be found:

r = Runfiles.CreateOrRaise()

If you want to explicitly create a manifest- or directory-based implementation, you can do so as follows:

r1 = Runfiles.CreateManifestBased("path/to/foo.runfiles_manifest")

r2 = Runfiles.CreateDirectoryBased("path/to/foo.runfiles/")

If you want to start subprocesses that access runfiles, you have to set the right environment variables for them:

import subprocess
from python.runfiles import Runfiles

r = Runfiles.Create()
env = {}
# ...
env.update(r.EnvVars())
p = subprocess.run(
    [r.Rlocation("path/to/binary")],
    env=env,
    # ...
)

Release files for bazel-runfiles 2.4.0rc1

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for bazel-runfiles 2.4.0rc1
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
bazel_runfiles-2.4.0rc1-py3-none-any.whl 11.1 kB Sep 27, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Release files / bazel_runfiles-2.4.0rc1-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	bazel_runfiles-2.4.0rc1-py3-none-any.whl
Size	11.1 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`de91a18d9dd2f437c5551c08338bca201a18caac02fdf6e19568f3f3fe012b16`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`8caf8f2b2252a89e4e0fea745eaab050036aa87add805c80835416f514be9755`
Upload date	Sep 27, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.14.4`