build-meta-plus

A lightweight, drop-in replacement for the default setuptools.build_meta backend that supports automated pre- and post-build hooks via pyproject.toml.

build_meta_plus maintains full compatibility with setuptools while restoring the flexibility of custom build steps—ideal for replacing legacy setup.py hooks in modern PEP 517 projects.

Why use this?

build_meta_plus is ideal for streamlining your development workflow, from automating pre-build generation tasks to maintaining a tidy project environment by automatically managing temporary build artifacts.

For example, you can ensure your workspace remains clean by removing .egg-info directories immediately after a build:

[tool.build_meta_plus]
post-build = ["rm -rf *.egg-info"]

Getting Started

To use build_meta_plus in your project, configure your pyproject.toml to use it as the build backend and define your hooks:

[build-system]
requires = ["setuptools>=61", "wheel", "build_meta_plus"]
build-backend = "build_meta_plus"

[tool.build_meta_plus]
pre-build = [
    "echo 'Generating assets...'",
    "python scripts/generate_version.py"
]
post-build = [
    "rm -rf *.egg-info",
    "echo 'Cleanup complete.'"
]

When you run standard build or install commands (like python -m build or pip install .), build_meta_plus automatically intercepts the PEP 517/660 hooks, executes your pre-build commands, delegates the actual build to setuptools, and finally runs your post-build cleanup.