uv-workon 0.5.1

Tools to activate and run virtual environments from central location

uv-workon

Command line program uvw to work with multiple uv based virtual environments. Note that the program name uvw differs from the project name uv-workon as uvw was taken on pypi.

Overview

uv has taken the python world by storm, and for good reason. It manages projects, dependencies, virtual environment creation, and much more, all while being blazingly fast. One of the central ideas of uv is that the old method of activating virtual environments should be replace with uv run ... and letting uv figure out the rest. We fully agree with this workflow, but it does run counter to how many have used python virtual environments day to day for data work. For example, many have historically used tools like conda or virtualenvwrapper to manage centrally located python environments, that can be reused for multiple tasks. While we discorage using "mega" environments (i.e., sticking every dependency you'll ever need in a single python environments), there is utility in using a virtual environment for multiple tasks. There is active discussion regarding if and how uv should manage centralized virtual environments.

We takes the perspective that python virtual environments should be managed with uv inside a project. uvw allows for the usage of such virtual environments outside the project. The basic workflow is as follows:

1. Create a project my-project using uv init ...
2. Create a virtual environment my-project/.venv using uv sync ...
3. Link to central location using uvw link my-project

Now, from anywhere, you can use the virtual environment my-project:

• Activate with uvw activate -n my-project
• Run python using the my-project virtual environment with uvw run -n my-project ...
• Change to the my-project project directory with uvw cd -n my-project

Features

• Link virtual environment to central location with uvw link. These links are located at WORKON_HOME environment variable, defaulting to ~/.virtualenvs.
• Activate virtual environment with uvw activate ... (requires shell integration)
• Run under virtual environment with uvw run ...
• Change to project directory with uvw cd ... (requires shell integration)
• List available virtual environments with uvw list
• Cleanup missing symlinks with uvw clean
• Manage ipykernel with uvw kernels ...
  • Install kernels for linked virtual environments which have ipykernel installed with uvw kernels install ...
  • Remove kernels (including remove all missing/broken kernels) with uvw kernels remove ...
  • list installed kernels with uvw kernels list ...

Status

This package is actively used by the author. Please feel free to create a pull request for wanted features and suggestions!

Quick start

It is recommended to install with uv:

uv tool install uv-workon

To include the ability to manage ipykernel, include the jupyter extra:

uv tool install "uv-workon[jupyter]"

Add autocompletion

Run the following to add autocompletion for uvw:

uvw --install-completion

Shell integration

To use uvw activate and uvw cd, you must enable the shell configuration with `eval "$(uvw shell-config)", or add it to you config script with:

# for zsh
echo 'eval "$(uvw shell-config)"' >> ~/.zshrc
# for bash
echo 'eval "$(uvw shell-config)"' >> ~/.bashrc

Currently uvw shell integration is setup to work with bash and zsh shells only.

Documentation

See the documentation for further details.

License

This is free software. See LICENSE.

Related work

Any other stuff to mention....

Contact

The author can be reached at [e-mail].

Credits

This package was created using Cookiecutter with the usnistgov/cookiecutter-nist-python template.

Changelog

Changelog for uv-workon

Unreleased

See the fragment files in changelog.d

v0.5.1 — 2025-03-27

Changed

• Cleanup output for kernels install for environments without ipykernels. Now only outputs No ipykernels if --verbose option passed

v0.5.0 — 2025-03-27

Added

• Added subcommand uvw venv-link to link from workon-home to local .venv.

v0.4.0 — 2025-03-25

Changed

• Now supports --yes/--no options. Default is to query the user to yes/no questions. Passing --yes will always answer yes. Passing --no will always answer no.

v0.3.1 — 2025-03-25

Fixed

• Removed warning from uvw kernels list and type completion.

v0.3.0 — 2025-03-19

Added

• Added kernels subcommands with:
  • install - install ipykernels
  • remove - remove jupyer kernels
  • list - list jupyter kernels This adds functionality to easy transition from nb_conda_kernels to using uv to manage virtual environment.
• Added tests to have full coverage. This software was developed by employees of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the Federal Government. Pursuant to title 17 United States Code Section 105, works of NIST employees are not subject to copyright protection in the United States and are considered to be in the public domain. Permission to freely use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation without fee is hereby granted, provided that this notice and disclaimer of warranty appears in all copies.

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