Motivation and vision

Although very common among conda users, using conda and pip in the same environment can under certain circumstances cause difficult to debug issues and is currently not seen as 100% stable. conda-pypi exists as a solution for creating a better experience when using these two packaging ecosystems together. Here, we give a high-level overview of why this conda plugin exists and finish by outlining our strategies for combining conda packages with Python distribution packages.

The vision

conda-pypi aims to make it easier and safer to add Python distribution packages to existing conda environments. We acknowledge that we cannot solve all problems, specifically as they relate to binary distributions of packages, but we believe we can provide users with a way to safely install pure Python packages in conda environments.

The details

To provide a thorough explanation of the problem and our proposed solutions, we have organized this section of the documentation into the following pages:

• Key differences between conda packages and wheels gives you a firm understanding of the problems that occur when using conda packages and wheels together.

• Existing Strategies shows how users currently deal with limitations of using conda and pip together.

• Addressing these Issues with conda-pypi explains how this plugin can improve the user experience of mixing these two packaging ecosystems.