Wrap Go binaries in Python wheels

Philip-J-Fry•about 2 hours ago

Why wouldn't I just `go install` from the git repo? Why is it worth encouraging the use of python tooling for generic application distribution when things like homebrew or chocolatey already exist?

bbg2401•about 2 hours ago

From what I recall, Simon believes non-technical people or developers new to an ecosystem (or lacking a specific toolchain) should be given options to use existing language-specific package repositories and package management tools to reduce friction while engaging in agentic coding.

I can see the rationale but I can't help thinking it's utterly absurd.

WhyNotHugo•about 2 hours ago

What kind of "non-technical" person is fine with using "pip install …", but not "go install …"?

verdverm•about 1 hour ago

Is uvx and python aware of GOOS / GOARCH when using this method? It looks like it, but also means you have to download all of the binaries instead of just the one you need?

I agree it is absurd, and then there has to be a python package one has to create, something go avoided by using the git repo URL directly

mbreese•about 2 hours ago

See here [1] for more information on the rationale behind this.

[1] https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/4/distributing-go-binarie...

geophph•about 2 hours ago

I’m curious if I could use this to write my webserver in Go, then call back to Python for the data sciencey stuff over stdin(?), but all in one nice tidy package? I mean right now I use fastapi and write it all in Python but I happen to enjoy writing Go. Does it matter either way? No I have like 4 users, but it seems not too crazy either?

the__alchemist•about 2 hours ago

This is still surprising! There are similar tools for rust, and presumably it works for arbitrary binaries. Can be a convenient installation approach if you expect your user base to use python. E.g. for distributing tools written in Go, Rust, C, etc that aid Python development. To the user, it's a standard `pip install x`, but x is not a python script.

mistic92•about 2 hours ago

Why should I use python when I can just use Go? Like why

shikon7•24 minutes ago

Because you can wrap Go binaries in Python wheels, but not yet Python wheels in Go binaries

sunshine-o•about 2 hours ago

Read too fast, I was really hoping for a way to get a python app in a binary like in Go.

the__alchemist•about 2 hours ago

Hah; turns out this is precisely the opposite!

pkaye•about 2 hours ago

Python subsystem for Go

Wrap Go binaries in Python wheels

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