Recipes: Packages and packaging

Short, task-focused how-tos for the packaging jobs that come up over and over. Each recipe assumes you've worked through the basics — if a piece of the workflow surprises you, the Learn section is one click away.

Unlike the tutorials, the recipes don't have a recommended order. Pick whichever is useful right now.

Recipes in this guide

• Pin and lock dependencies — when to pin exactly, when to allow ranges, and how to lock the full dependency graph for reproducibility.
• Turn a script folder into a package — the concrete steps from a flat directory of .py files to an installable package.
• Add a console-script entry point — turn a function into a command on the user's PATH.
• Resolve import errors — a diagnostic flow for ModuleNotFoundError, ImportError, and circular imports.
• Avoid common packaging mistakes — the traps that catch new authors, with the fix for each.