Packaging a Python CLI

mytool/
├── pyproject.toml
├── README.md
├── LICENSE
├── src/
│   └── mytool/
│       ├── __init__.py
│       ├── __main__.py       # enables `python -m mytool`
│       └── cli.py            # the entry point function
└── tests/
    └── test_cli.py

[build-system]
requires = ["hatchling"]
build-backend = "hatchling.build"

[project]
name = "mytool"
version = "0.1.0"
description = "Does the thing"
readme = "README.md"
requires-python = ">=3.10"
license = { file = "LICENSE" }
authors = [{ name = "Your Name", email = "[email protected]" }]
dependencies = [
    "click>=8.1",
    "httpx>=0.27",
]

[project.optional-dependencies]
dev = ["pytest", "ruff", "mypy"]

[project.scripts]
mytool = "mytool.cli:main"       # the console_scripts entry point

[project.urls]
Homepage = "https://github.com/you/mytool"

# src/mytool/cli.py
import click

@click.command()
@click.argument("target")
@click.option("--verbose", "-v", is_flag=True)
def main(target: str, verbose: bool) -> None:
    """Do the thing to TARGET."""
    if verbose:
        click.echo(f"processing {target}")
    ...

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

# src/mytool/__main__.py
from mytool.cli import main

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

uv build            # or: python -m build   -> dist/mytool-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl + .tar.gz
uv pip install dist/mytool-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl
mytool --help

# editable install while developing
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

[tool.hatch.version]
source = "vcs"          # version from `git describe` / the latest tag

# Get an API token from pypi.org, store it (uv reads UV_PUBLISH_TOKEN / ~/.pypirc)
uv publish            # or: twine upload dist/*
# Test first against TestPyPI:
uv publish --publish-url https://test.pypi.org/legacy/

pipx install mytool        # isolated env, command on PATH — the right way for CLIs
uv tool install mytool     # same idea, faster
pip install mytool         # into the current env — fine for library-style use

python -m build && twine check dist/*
pip install dist/*.whl && mytool --help
unzip -l dist/*.whl        # is your package actually in there?