uv(1)

uv provides a blazingly fast alternative to traditional Python package management tools like pip, pip-tools, and venv. It handles package installation, virtual environment creation, dependency resolution, and Python version management with significant performance improvements.

The tool is designed for both interactive use and CI/CD pipelines, supporting lock files, reproducible installs, and project management workflows. It can be used as a drop-in replacement for pip in most scenarios while offering additional features for professional Python development.

Install the requests package into the current Python environment

uv pip install requests

Create a new virtual environment named 'myenv'

uv venv myenv

Install all packages listed in a requirements.txt file

uv pip install -r requirements.txt

Create or update a lock file (uv.lock) for reproducible installs

uv lock

Install packages from requirements in frozen mode, ensuring lock file is up to date

uv pip install --frozen -r requirements.txt

Download and manage Python 3.11 using uv's Python manager

uv python install 3.11

Compile a requirements.in file into a pinned requirements.txt with lock file semantics

uv pip compile requirements.in -o requirements.txt

Run a Python script with a specific Python version, creating a venv if needed

uv run --python 3.10 script.py