Environments

arxpm does not bundle its own Python environment. Every project declares how its Python environment should be provided, and arxpm uses uv to install packages into the interpreter you point it at.

Three strategies are supported out of the box, each declared in .arxproject.toml via the [environment] table.

Strategy 1 — venv (default)

arxpm uses a virtual environment declared by kind = "venv". When path is omitted, arxpm treats it as a project-local .venv and creates it with uv venv if needed.

[environment]
kind = "venv"
path = ".venv"   # optional; defaults to ".venv"

Behavior:

• arxpm install runs uv venv <path> if the venv does not yet exist, then uv pip install --python <venv>/bin/python ... for build-system and runtime dependencies.
• arxpm run and arxpm build invoke <venv>/bin/arx so the compiler resolves installed Arx libraries from the same environment.

Omit the whole [environment] section for the simplest projects — the defaults match what you'd write by hand.

Strategy 2 — conda

Point arxpm at an existing conda (or mamba) environment by name or prefix:

[environment]
kind = "conda"
name = "demo-env"
# or
# path = "/opt/conda/envs/demo-env"

Behavior:

• If path is provided, arxpm uses <path>/bin/python directly.
• Otherwise arxpm invokes conda run -n <name> python -c "import sys; print(sys.executable)" to locate the interpreter, then installs via uv pip install --python <interp>.
• arxpm run and arxpm build invoke the arx executable installed beside <interp>.
• conda must be on PATH when only name is provided.

Strategy 3 — system

Use the Python interpreter that is already running arxpm.

[environment]
kind = "system"

Behavior:

• arxpm install installs packages into the current Python environment using uv pip install --python <sys.executable> ....
• arxpm run and arxpm build invoke the arx executable installed beside <sys.executable>.
• path and name are not allowed for this mode.

Why uv?

uv is used as the package installer for every strategy. It is fast, it does not require an active venv (it accepts --python <interp>), and it is a single static binary. arxpm healthcheck reports whether uv is reachable on your PATH.

Tooling not managed by arxpm

arxpm pack and arxpm publish use Python packaging tooling from the outer interpreter that is running arxpm. They never install build or upload tooling into your project environment. These tools are declared as runtime dependencies of arxpm itself, so they are always available wherever arxpm is installed.

Configure publish credentials with the ARXPM_PUBLISH_* environment variables documented in the command reference. ARXPM_PUBLISH_REPOSITORY_URL defaults to the official PyPI upload endpoint when unset. For repeated local publishes, arxpm config pypi-token.<repository> stores tokens in the system keyring only and does not fall back to plaintext files.