flot · PyPI

flot is an easy tool to build Python packages (wheel and sdist) with no magic and guesswork. Flot can also create one or more Python packages from a single code tree, just by listing which files you want to include.

Because “Explicit is better than implicit” and “Simple is better than complex”

flot takes the magic and guesswork away of which files are included in a Python package: you just specify a list of paths or glob patterns for the files you want to include or exclude in your package. No more mystery! Include data files, multiple modules or any files as easily as listing their paths.

With flot you can also have multiple pyproject.toml files to enjoy the benefits of a simpler monolithic code repo and still be able to easily share and package multiple Pypi packages and foster the reuse of subsets of your larger project, without having some imposed directory structure.

Unlike flot, other Python build tools assume that you can only build a single Python package from a given directory or repository and use a lot of magic to find which module or file to include in your package.

Also, while flot promotes declarative builds, it is also possible to run arbitrary Python scripts when you need more power.

Install

pip install flot

Usage

Say you’re writing a module foobar - either as a single file foobar.py, or as a directory - and you want to distribute it.

Create a pyproject.toml file. It will look something like this:
```
[build-system]
requires = ["flot"]
build-backend = "flot.buildapi"

[project]
name = "foobar"
version = "1.0.0"
description = "foobar frobinator"

[tool.flot]
includes = ["foobar.py"]
```
You can edit this file to add other metadata, like URL for example to set up command line scripts or add your dependencies. See the pyproject.toml documentation at https://github.com/nexB/flot/blob/main/docs/pyproject_toml.rst
Run this command to build your wheel in the dist/ directory:
```
flot
```

Once your package is published to PyPI (I use the standard twine tool for this), people can install it using pip or any other Python packaging tool just like any other package.

Say you’re writing a second module baz as a single file baz.py. Just create a second file named for instance baz-pyproject.toml. It will look something like this:

[build-system]
requires = ["flot"]
build-backend = "flot.buildapi"

[project]
name = "baz"
version = "1.0.0"
description = "baz frobinator"

[tool.flot]
includes = ["baz.py"]

Run this command to build a second wheel in the dist/ directory:
```
flot --pyproject baz-pyproject.toml
```

You now have a second wheel built from the same tree with different content.

Release files for flot 0.7.3

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

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for flot 0.7.3
File	Size	Uploaded
flot-0.7.3.tar.gz	44.9 kB	Mar 16, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for flot 0.7.3
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
flot-0.7.3-py3-none-any.whl 21.9 kB Mar 16, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 66.7 kB

Release files / flot-0.7.3.tar.gz

Download URL	flot-0.7.3.tar.gz
Size	44.9 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`f6d1e9f2a11fa290eccaf7f1518050503586f66e96e2023062881c4108a3c6cc`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`72c81f7c75d22248655f63556575392ab75b6747bdeb4a79d43499148f50d64b`
Upload date	Mar 16, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	Yes
Uploaded via	`twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.13.7`

Provenance

Provenance describes where a file came from. On PyPI, provenance is shared via attestations, which provide a verifiable record of the build or publishing details. View details, limitations and caveats.

Identity

Publishing platform: GitHub Actions
Publishing repository: github.com/aboutcode-org/flot
Publishing commit: github.com/aboutcode-org/flot/tree/642a07f81f1605f8473b161567d32cf60fcae67e

Workflow

Publishing configuration: github.com/aboutcode-org/flot/blob/642a07f81f1605f8473b161567d32cf60fcae67e/.github/workflows/pypi-release.yml
Publishing logs: github.com/aboutcode-org/flot/actions/runs/23148597957/attempts/1

Artifact

Subject: flot-0.7.3.tar.gz
SHA-256 checksum: f6d1e9f2a11fa290eccaf7f1518050503586f66e96e2023062881c4108a3c6cc Verifying attestations

Release files / flot-0.7.3-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	flot-0.7.3-py3-none-any.whl
Size	21.9 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`b864b194a0fe8893eec7fe62c6b06f4c988da0bdf93b42fe522b728b29ca35bf`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`1586e52a111a3a30b172f46f03edc64be95b559f03f7bfda4aaa2f47ed847033`
Upload date	Mar 16, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	Yes
Uploaded via	`twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.13.7`

Provenance

Identity

Publishing platform: GitHub Actions
Publishing repository: github.com/aboutcode-org/flot
Publishing commit: github.com/aboutcode-org/flot/tree/642a07f81f1605f8473b161567d32cf60fcae67e

Workflow

Publishing configuration: github.com/aboutcode-org/flot/blob/642a07f81f1605f8473b161567d32cf60fcae67e/.github/workflows/pypi-release.yml
Publishing logs: github.com/aboutcode-org/flot/actions/runs/23148597957/attempts/1

Artifact

Subject: flot-0.7.3-py3-none-any.whl
SHA-256 checksum: b864b194a0fe8893eec7fe62c6b06f4c988da0bdf93b42fe522b728b29ca35bf Verifying attestations