If you use Python you should know about uv, an extremely fast package manager written in Rust that truly seems to be the one tool to rule them all. Now I’ll be the first to admit that Python tooling is not, on the face of it, the most interesting topic. But it’s clear the Python ecosystem has had challenges for a while now around:

  • managing Python versions
  • running and installing Python packages
  • working with virtual environments
  • being generally slow

Most Python developers, myself included, use several different tools to manage these tasks. For example, pyenv to switch between Python versions, spinning up virtual environments for reach project, requirements.txt for dependencies, and so on.

uv is a fresh new take on all this that is relatively easy to adopt and solves all of the issues. I am not one to jump on new tools just for the sake of it, but even I have adopted uv in all my new projects and I’m gradually switching over my old projects, too, because it is quick to do so and provides real benefits.

Michael Kennedy goes even deeper here, explaining how to get started with uv and the multiple ways to incorporate it in your toolchain.

A fun chat and likely the first of many more Livestreams to come.

I should note that PyCharm already supports uv and there are further efforts to make this integration even more seamless in the near future.