setuptoolscompatible

Setuptoolscompatible is an informal descriptor used in the Python packaging ecosystem to indicate that a package is designed to work with the setuptools packaging system. It typically signals that the project uses setuptools conventions for metadata, building, and installation, enabling tools and workflows that rely on setuptools to function correctly.

A setuptools-compatible package usually declares its distribution metadata via a setup.py or setup.cfg and uses the setup() function or equivalent configuration to specify fields such as name, version, description, author, license, install_requires, entry_points, packages, and package_data. Such a package can be built into sources and wheels and installed using standard setuptools-based tooling, and it can participate in common commands like sdist, bdist_wheel, and egg_info.

Historically, setuptools extended distutils and became the de facto standard for Python packaging in many ecosystems. Being setuptools-compatible means a project can leverage the broader set of setuptools features, including easier dependency specification, entry points for plugins, and compatibility with older tooling that assumes setuptools metadata and behavior.

In modern packaging practice, projects often declare their build backend in a pyproject.toml file. A setuptools-compatible project may specify a build-backend such as setuptools.build_meta and include build-system requirements like setuptools and wheel. This aligns the project with PEP 517 and PEP 518 while preserving compatibility with setuptools-based workflows.

The term remains informal and is not a formal standard. As packaging evolves toward standardized metadata and alternative backends, being setuptools-compatible emphasizes compatibility with setuptools-driven processes, while not precluding usage of newer or different tooling.