ChatUV

ChatUV bootstraps uv-based Python environments from low-version Python shells. It is a small standalone helper for the first step: install or find uv, install a requested Python runtime through uv, create a seeded virtual environment, and optionally make future shells auto-activate that environment.

Quick Start

pip install ChatUV
chatuv setup
chatuv --version
chatuv --tree
chatuv --tree-brief

By default, chatuv setup creates ~/.chatarch/venv with Python 3.12 and pip:

chatuv setup --venv ~/.chatarch/venv --python 3.12

Useful options:

chatuv setup --force                 # recreate an existing target venv
chatuv setup --uv-path /path/to/uv    # use a specific uv binary
chatuv setup --dry-run                # print planned commands only
chatuv setup --no-activate            # do not edit shell rc files

When shell activation is enabled, ChatUV appends or updates a marked source block in existing ~/.zshrc and ~/.bashrc files. It does not create those files when they are missing.

CLI Tree

On Python 3.10 and newer, ChatUV uses ChatStyle's registered Click tree runtime. The full tree includes the real setup signature:

chatuv
├── --help  # Show this message and exit.
├── --version  # Show the version and exit.
├── --tree  # Print the registered CLI tree and exit.
├── --tree-brief  # Print the registered CLI tree without parameter signatures and exit.
└── setup [--venv VENV] [--python PYTHON-VERSION] [--uv-path UV-PATH] [--force] [--no-activate] [--dry-run]  # Install uv and create a seeded venv; writes files unless --dry-run.

The brief tree keeps the same command surface without setup parameters:

chatuv
├── --help  # Show this message and exit.
├── --version  # Show the version and exit.
├── --tree  # Print the registered CLI tree and exit.
├── --tree-brief  # Print the registered CLI tree without parameter signatures and exit.
└── setup  # Install uv and create a seeded venv; writes files unless --dry-run.

Compatibility

ChatUV targets Python 3.6 and newer so it can be installed from older Python shells before bootstrapping newer uv-managed environments. Python 3.6-3.9 use a dependency-free standard-library fallback that provides --help, --version, and setup. Python 3.10 and newer install bounded Click and chatstyle>=0.2.0,<0.3.0 dependencies and additionally provide the shared --tree and --tree-brief contract.