vforge 1.0.2

vforge virtual environment manager

PROJECT VFORGE

vforge ("virtual environment forge") is a command line tool which creates and manages pip virtual environments. It scans your Python project folder for imported libraries, installs all missing packages, removes unused ones, and can export a requirements.txt file for environment reproducibility. This eliminates the manual effort of tracking dependencies with requirements.txt, running repeated pip install commands, and pruning package bloat.

GETTING STARTED

To start the fun, run pip install vforge in your terminal window.

CLI commands

vforge init --venv-name --project-dir <project_dir> --target-dir --sync

• Creates venv with name myenv by scanning CWD (unless project-dir specified) inside of CW (unless target directory is specified).
• Optionally calls vforge sync after environment creation to install all necessary packages after creation.

vforge sync --project-dir <project_dir>

• scans .py and .ipynb files inside of project-dir for imports, and installs missing packages.
• scans user config file and takes into account any explicit directions (if any)

vforge purge

• removes packages not referenced in project directory.
• also scans user config file and ensures all manually excluded packages are uninstalled

vforge freeze

• writes a requirements.txt file which would duplicate the venv.

vforge help

• prints the information above to the terminal window.

Config spec

• After running vforge init venv, vforge will create a vforge_config.txt file in CWD.
• FILLING OUT THIS FILE IS COMPLETELY OPTIONAL, UNLESS YOU WANT FINE-GRAINED CONTROL OVER THE VENV. If it is not modified after vforge init, vforge defaults to scanning and installing without constraint.
• This purpose of this file is to allow the developer to specify mandatory requirements for the venv if they have any.
• You should fill out this file with exactly the same syntax you would use to complete a requirements.txt file.
• The file will include a commented section '# exclude below'. List any packages (line separated) you do not wish to be installed to the venv by vforge.
• NOTE: This file is only for explicit venv requirements. When using vforge, it is redundant to write package names in this file where any version is acceptable.

Acceptable syntax

Type	Example	Meaning
Exact version	pandas==2.2.1	Must match exactly
Minimum version	numpy>=1.24	Any ≥ 1.24
Maximum version	requests<=2.31	Any ≤ 2.31
Range	sqlalchemy>=1.3,<2.0	Between bounds
Inequality	flask!=2.1.0	Anything except 2.1.0
Compatible release	pytest~=7.4	≥ 7.4 and < 8.0
Wildcard	boto3==1.34.*	Any 1.34.x version
No version (latest)	black	Latest available
Conditional installation	importlib-metadata; python_version < "3.8"	Installs importlib-metadata only if python version < 3.8.

Inclusion rules

Builtin exclusions

Ignore modules from Python’s standard library (ex: sys, os, pathlib, etc..). Uses stdlib-list to verify.

Third party inclusions

Includes any imports not in builtins or local modules.

If any installation fails, vforge logs the failure and continues processing remaining packages.

Detects local modules

Skip local .py files or packages under project root.

Name-to-package resolution

Outsources this to pip by calling pip list + pip install for the required packages.

Version policy

If the config file specifies a version, then it will be installed according to the condition. If no condition is provided, install latest.

Purge rule

Any installed package not in detected import list is uninstalled.

Manual exclusions

Respect '# EXCLUDE BELOW' list from config to prevent auto-installation of known exceptions.