`ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pip'` when testing DB connection (Shillelagh dependency)

[DataStrategistTeam]

Bug description

Description:

I encountered an error when testing a database connection in Superset. The request fails with:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pip'

Stack trace (relevant part):

File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/shillelagh/functions.py", line 12, in <module>
    import pip
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pip'

This originates from the Shillelagh dependency, which attempts to import pip at runtime.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Deploy Superset in a minimal Python environment (e.g., Docker with Python 3.11 slim image)
2. Create a virtual environment without pip (or where pip is not available)
3. Attempt to test a database connection via the UI
4. Observe failure

Expected behavior:
Testing a database connection should not depend on the presence of pip as an importable module.

Actual behavior:
The request fails due to ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pip'.

Environment:

• Superset version: 6.0.0
• Python version: 3.11
• Deployment: Docker (minimal image)
• OS: (e.g. Debian slim)

Screenshots/recordings

Superset version

master / latest-dev

Python version

3.11

Node version

18 or greater

Browser

Chrome

Additional context

No response

Checklist

• I have searched Superset docs and Slack and didn't find a solution to my problem.
• I have searched the GitHub issue tracker and didn't find a similar bug report.
• I have checked Superset's logs for errors and if I found a relevant Python stacktrace, I included it here as text in the "additional context" section.

[DataStrategistTeam]

Same for gsheets://

  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/shillelagh/backends/apsw/dialects/gsheets.py", line 21, in <module>
    from shillelagh.backends.apsw import db
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/shillelagh/backends/apsw/db.py", line 16, in <module>
    from shillelagh import functions
  File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/shillelagh/functions.py", line 12, in <module>
    import pip
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pip'

[DataStrategistTeam]

Key detail:
This environment is managed using uv.

Inside the container:

pip freeze

returns:

uv==0.11.8

However:

python -c "import pip"

fails with ModuleNotFoundError.

superset@7c3bf8762318:/app$ python -c "import pip"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pip'
superset@7c3bf8762318:/app$ pip freeze
WARNING: The directory '/app/superset_home/.cache/pip' or its parent directory is not owned or is not writable by the current user. The cache has been disabled. Check the permissions and owner of that directory. If executing pip with sudo, you should use sudo's -H flag.
uv==0.11.8
superset@7c3bf8762318:/app$