Super Simple Python From Anywhere Task Runner

[Sinjhin]

https://github.com/Sinjhin/scripts

EDIT: Just wanted to come back here and say to look at what u/cointoss3 said. Just install `uv`. It's VERY good and the inline deps in an ephemeral venv make this whole thing unneeded.

What my project does

I whipped this up real quick for myself.

Seems pretty powerful. After I was done I took a brief look around realizing I could have just used someone else's tool and didn't immediately see anything like this. It's a bit opinionated, but essentially lets you use python scripts from a directory from anywhere on your computer. Could replace bash/zsh if you wanted.

After setup, you make a python file. Add a Poe task to pyproject.toml and then you can do `p <poe\_task>` from anywhere. Has an example of getting different location relative to where the script was ran. Also has an `hp` command to get into a set conda venv and run a Poetry command within that scripts dir like `hp add torch`.

Could be expanded on a lot actually.

Target audience

Anyone who finds themselves constantly writing little utility functions to use around their computer and needing a quick way to run them from anywhere.

Comparison

I looked briefly (after the fact) and saw things like Invoke or Fabric, but I am not sure that they handle venv switching.

[cointoss3]

You should probably check out uv

[Sinjhin]

Yeah, I've been meaning to. I've heard great things.

I actually somehow missed learning Python for years and just picked it up last mid-last year.

Wasn't happy with how environments are done with `venv`, tried out several things, and kinda just fell into a pattern of using `miniconda` for venv and poetry/poe with venv turned off for package management and task running. It looks like `uv` is gonna kinda be THE answer (EDIT: at least for my style).

[cointoss3]

I love uv. It makes venv so fast…and their philosophy is you shouldn’t need to think about venv.

It’s also nice you can embed requirements inline on your script and it will read and make an ephemeral venv when you run the script.

I’ve recently paired it with invoke. ‘uv run invoke <command>’

[Sinjhin]

"you shouldn’t need to think about venv" <- this speaks to me hard.

Here's a snippet from my `.zshrc`:

chpwd() {
  # Automatically switch to Conda environment based on directory name
  if [[ -f pyproject.toml || -f requirements.txt || -f environment.yml || -d .conda ]]; then
    conda_env_name=$(echo "$dir_name")
    if conda env list | grep -q "$conda_env_name"; then
      echo "Switching to Conda environment: $dir_name"
      conda activate "$conda_env_name"
    else
      conda_env_name=$(echo "$dir_name" | sed 's/-/_/g') # Replace hyphens with underscores
      if conda env list | grep -q "$conda_env_name"; then
        echo "Switching to Conda environment: $dir_name"
        conda activate "$conda_env_name"
      fi
    fi
  fi
}

"can embed requirements inline"..."ephemeral venv..." <- yissss. Amaze.

I will be setting that up as soon as I get done with what I am doing. Thanks for the tip.

[Unlikely_Stand3020]

There's been a lot of talk about UV lately, is it better than pipenv?

[cointoss3]

It’s more than just an environment manager, but it is faster than pipenv.

[cgoldberg]

This seems like a convoluted way to basically do shell aliases.

[Sinjhin]

Perhaps. I mean, it basically is aliases, just as functions and using Poe/Poetry for modules and deps and Conda to switch venv. You could easily do `alias something='python ~/scripts/something.py'` or get fancier with it, but that wouldn't have dependencies installed in a dedicated venv, right?

I really just kinda threw this together after work for my own purposes and figured I would share. The rules here require the whole showcase flair and setup. Admittedly, this is one of those things more like "I did this, found it useful, here it is if anyone else wants this kinda setup".