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This guide helps you create a README in a PyPI-friendly format and include your README in your package so it appears on PyPI.</p> <section id="creating-a-readme-file"> <h2>Creating a README file<a class="headerlink" href="#creating-a-readme-file" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2> <p>README files for Python projects are often named <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">README</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">README.txt</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">README.rst</span></code>, or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">README.md</span></code>.</p> <p>For your README to display properly on PyPI, choose a markup language supported by PyPI. Formats supported by <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/pypa/readme_renderer">PyPI’s README renderer</a> are:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p>plain text</p></li> <li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://docutils.sourceforge.io/rst.html">reStructuredText</a> (without Sphinx extensions)</p></li> <li><p>Markdown (<a class="reference external" href="https://github.github.com/gfm/">GitHub Flavored Markdown</a> by default, or <a class="reference external" href="https://commonmark.org/">CommonMark</a>)</p></li> </ul> <p>It’s customary to save your README file in the root of your project, in the same directory as your <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></code> file.</p> </section> <section id="including-your-readme-in-your-package-s-metadata"> <h2>Including your README in your package’s metadata<a class="headerlink" href="#including-your-readme-in-your-package-s-metadata" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2> <p>To include your README’s contents as your package description, set your project’s <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Description</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Description-Content-Type</span></code> metadata, typically in your project’s <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></code> file.</p> <div class="admonition seealso"> <p class="admonition-title">See also</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../../specifications/core-metadata/#description-optional"><span class="std std-ref">Description</span></a></p></li> <li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../../specifications/core-metadata/#description-content-type-optional"><span class="std std-ref">Description-Content-Type</span></a></p></li> </ul> </div> <p>For example, to set these values in a package’s <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></code> file, use <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup()</span></code>’s <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">long_description</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">long_description_content_type</span></code>.</p> <p>Set the value of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">long_description</span></code> to the contents (not the path) of the README file itself. Set the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">long_description_content_type</span></code> to an accepted <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Content-Type</span></code>-style value for your README file’s markup, such as <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">text/plain</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">text/x-rst</span></code> (for reStructuredText), or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">text/markdown</span></code>.</p> <div class="admonition note"> <p class="admonition-title">Note</p> <p>If you’re using GitHub-flavored Markdown to write a project’s description, ensure you upgrade the following tools:</p> <div class="tab-set docutils container"> <input checked="True" class="tab-input" id="tab-set--0-input--1" name="tab-set--0" type="radio"><label class="tab-label" for="tab-set--0-input--1">Unix/macOS</label><div class="tab-content docutils container"> <div class="highlight-bash notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>python3<span class="w"> </span>-m<span class="w"> </span>pip<span class="w"> </span>install<span class="w"> </span>--user<span class="w"> </span>--upgrade<span class="w"> </span>setuptools<span class="w"> </span>wheel<span class="w"> </span>twine </pre></div> </div> </div> <input class="tab-input" id="tab-set--0-input--2" name="tab-set--0" type="radio"><label class="tab-label" for="tab-set--0-input--2">Windows</label><div class="tab-content docutils container"> <div class="highlight-bat notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>py -m pip install --user --upgrade setuptools wheel twine </pre></div> </div> </div> </div> <p>The minimum required versions of the respective tools are:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setuptools</span> <span class="pre">>=</span> <span class="pre">38.6.0</span></code></p></li> <li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">wheel</span> <span class="pre">>=</span> <span class="pre">0.31.0</span></code></p></li> <li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">twine</span> <span class="pre">>=</span> <span class="pre">1.11.0</span></code></p></li> </ul> <p>It’s recommended that you use <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">twine</span></code> to upload the project’s distribution packages:</p> <div class="highlight-bash notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>twine<span class="w"> </span>upload<span class="w"> </span>dist/* </pre></div> </div> </div> <p>For example, see this <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></code> file, which reads the contents of <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">README.md</span></code> as <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">long_description</span></code> and identifies the markup as GitHub-flavored Markdown:</p> <div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">from</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">setuptools</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">setup</span> <span class="c1"># read the contents of your README file</span> <span class="kn">from</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">pathlib</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">Path</span> <span class="n">this_directory</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Path</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="vm">__file__</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">parent</span> <span class="n">long_description</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">this_directory</span> <span class="o">/</span> <span class="s2">"README.md"</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read_text</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">(</span> <span class="n">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'an_example_package'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="c1"># other arguments omitted</span> <span class="n">long_description</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">long_description</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">long_description_content_type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'text/markdown'</span> <span class="p">)</span> </pre></div> </div> </section> <section id="validating-restructuredtext-markup"> <h2>Validating reStructuredText markup<a class="headerlink" href="#validating-restructuredtext-markup" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2> <p>If your README is written in reStructuredText, any invalid markup will prevent it from rendering, causing PyPI to instead just show the README’s raw source.</p> <p>Note that Sphinx extensions used in docstrings, such as <a class="reference external" href="https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/restructuredtext/directives.html" title="(in Sphinx v8.2.0)"><span class="xref std std-doc">directives</span></a> and <a class="reference external" href="https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/restructuredtext/roles.html" title="(in Sphinx v8.2.0)"><span class="xref std std-doc">roles</span></a> (e.g., “<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">:py:func:`getattr`</span></code>” or “<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">:ref:`my-reference-label`</span></code>”), are not allowed here and will result in error messages like “<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Error:</span> <span class="pre">Unknown</span> <span class="pre">interpreted</span> <span class="pre">text</span> <span class="pre">role</span> <span class="pre">"py:func".</span></code>”.</p> <p>You can check your README for markup errors before uploading as follows:</p> <ol class="arabic"> <li><p>Install the latest version of <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/pypa/twine">twine</a>; version 1.12.0 or higher is required:</p> <div class="tab-set docutils container"> <input checked="True" class="tab-input" id="tab-set--1-input--1" name="tab-set--1" type="radio"><label class="tab-label" for="tab-set--1-input--1">Unix/macOS</label><div class="tab-content docutils container"> <div class="highlight-bash notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>python3<span class="w"> </span>-m<span class="w"> </span>pip<span class="w"> </span>install<span class="w"> </span>--upgrade<span class="w"> </span>twine </pre></div> </div> </div> <input class="tab-input" id="tab-set--1-input--2" name="tab-set--1" type="radio"><label class="tab-label" for="tab-set--1-input--2">Windows</label><div class="tab-content docutils container"> <div class="highlight-bat notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>py -m pip install --upgrade twine </pre></div> </div> </div> </div> </li> <li><p>Build the sdist and wheel for your project as described under <a class="reference internal" href="../distributing-packages-using-setuptools/#packaging-your-project"><span class="std std-ref">Packaging your project</span></a>.</p></li> <li><p>Run <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">twine</span> <span class="pre">check</span></code> on the sdist and wheel:</p> <div class="highlight-bash notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>twine<span class="w"> </span>check<span class="w"> </span>dist/* </pre></div> </div> <p>This command will report any problems rendering your README. If your markup renders fine, the command will output <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Checking</span> <span class="pre">distribution</span> <span class="pre">FILENAME:</span> <span class="pre">Passed</span></code>.</p> </li> </ol> </section> </section> </article> </div> <footer> <div class="related-pages"> <a class="next-page" href="../publishing-package-distribution-releases-using-github-actions-ci-cd-workflows/"> <div class="page-info"> <div class="context"> <span>Next</span> </div> <div class="title">Publishing package distribution releases using GitHub Actions CI/CD workflows</div> </div> <svg class="furo-related-icon"><use href="#svg-arrow-right"></use></svg> </a> <a class="prev-page" href="../using-testpypi/"> <svg class="furo-related-icon"><use href="#svg-arrow-right"></use></svg> <div class="page-info"> <div class="context"> <span>Previous</span> </div> <div class="title">Using TestPyPI</div> </div> </a> </div> <div class="bottom-of-page"> <div class="left-details"> <div class="copyright"> Copyright © 2013–2020, PyPA </div> Made with <a href="https://www.sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx</a> and <a class="muted-link" href="https://pradyunsg.me">@pradyunsg</a>'s <a href="https://github.com/pradyunsg/furo">Furo</a> <div class="last-updated"> Last updated on Feb 19, 2025</div> </div> <div class="right-details"> </div> </div> </footer> </div> <aside class="toc-drawer"> <div class="toc-sticky toc-scroll"> <div class="toc-title-container"> <span class="toc-title"> On this page </span> </div> <div class="toc-tree-container"> <div class="toc-tree"> <ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#">Making a PyPI-friendly README</a><ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#creating-a-readme-file">Creating a README file</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#including-your-readme-in-your-package-s-metadata">Including your README in your package’s metadata</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#validating-restructuredtext-markup">Validating reStructuredText markup</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </aside> </div> </div><script src="../../_static/documentation_options.js?v=187304be"></script> <script src="../../_static/doctools.js?v=888ff710"></script> <script src="../../_static/sphinx_highlight.js?v=dc90522c"></script> <script src="../../_static/scripts/furo.js?v=5fa4622c"></script> <script src="../../_static/tabs.js?v=3ee01567"></script> <script src="../../_static/clipboard.min.js?v=a7894cd8"></script> <script src="../../_static/copybutton.js?v=cb5fb026"></script> <script data-domain="packaging.python.org" defer="defer" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script> </body> </html>