How to specify local (preferably editable) path in dependencies

[Godsmith]

I have another python package markdownfile in a submodule markdown in my project, and I am trying to refer to it in the dependencies in pyproject.toml.

I saw that Hatch is supposed to adhere to PEP 660, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to actually specify an editable dependency in pyproject.toml. So I tried just specifying a local dependency to start with.

I first tried dependencies = ["markdownfile @ file://./markdown"], but get the error ValueError: non-local file URIs are not supported on this platform: 'file://./markdown'. Fine, it looks like I can't have relative URLs with the file:// prefix.

Then I saw that on https://hatch.pypa.io/latest/config/dependency/#local it says

When running commands that invoke pip directly, you may also specify paths relative to your project's root directory on all platforms by omitting the leading slashes and beginning the path with a dot

Not sure what "invokes pip directly" means here. I tried dependencies = ["markdownfile @ file:./markdown"] and then it says ValueError: Dependency #1 of field project.dependencies is invalid: Invalid URL given. So that doesn't seem to be PEP 508 compliant?

Is it possible to point out a local dependency in pyproject.toml, and if so, how?

[ofek]

Dependency definitions have no concept of editable installations so your only option is to use commands to invoke pip directly, like we do for Hatchling here or using relative file:./ syntax.

If you want to define non-editable local project dependencies you can set allow-direct-references.

[Newbytee]

Is there any chance editable installations of dependencies could be added to Hatch somehow?

[return42]

like we do for Hatchling here

For those coming around: this workaround is described in #516 (reply in thread)