uv is a fantastic tool that is ahead of its time. In the same vein as ruff, it is bundling many capabilities that Python developers need into a single tool. It currently provides the capabilities of pip, pip-tools, and virtualenv in one convenient binary.

Python can't build out of the box

As of Python 3.12, which has removed setuptools and wheel from standard Python installations, a user is unable to perform pip install -e . or pip install . in a local pyproject.toml project without pulling in external third-party package dependencies.

This means that in an offline environment without access to PyPI, a developer is dead in the water and cannot even install their own project from source. This is a glaring flaw with Python, which is supposed to be "batteries included."

uv can fix this

I propose that the uv binary expand its capabilities to also function as a build backend.

If uv could natively build projects from source, it would be a game changer!