pants

scalable build system for monorepos

TLDR

List targets

$ pants list ::

Run tests

$ pants test ::

Format code

$ pants fmt ::

Lint code

$ pants lint ::

Build package

$ pants package [path/to:target]

Run specific target

$ pants run [path/to:target]

Check types

$ pants check ::

Show dependencies

$ pants dependencies [path/to:target]

SYNOPSIS

pants [options] goal [targets...]

pants is a scalable build system for monorepos. It supports Python, Go, Java, Scala, Shell, and Docker.Target notation uses colons to separate path and target name. Double colons (::) match all targets recursively.Caching and memoization make repeated builds fast. Remote caching enables team-wide build sharing.Dependency inference automatically discovers imports. Explicit dependencies can be declared in BUILD files.Fine-grained invalidation rebuilds only affected targets. Concurrent execution uses available cores.

PARAMETERS

list

List matching targets.

test

Run tests for matching test targets.

fmt

Format source files in-place using configured formatters.

lint

Run lint checks on matching targets.

check

Run type/compilation checks (e.g. mypy, javac).

package

Build deployable artifacts (wheels, pex, jars, docker images).

run

Run an executable target.

publish

Publish deployable artifacts to a remote registry.

dependencies

Show the transitive dependencies of a target.

dependents

Show targets that depend on the given target.

roots

List all root targets that match.

peek

Print detailed metadata about matching targets.

repl

Start an interactive REPL preloaded with the specified targets.

tailor

Auto-generate or update BUILD files.

update-build-files

Apply deprecation fixes to existing BUILD files.

--changed-since REF

Limit targets to those changed since the given git ref.

--changed-dependents=MODE

Include dependents of changed targets (none, direct, transitive).

-l, --level LEVEL

Log level (trace, debug, info, warn, error).

--keep-sandboxes=MODE

Keep the execution sandbox for debugging (always, onfailure, never_).

--no-local-cache, --no-remote-cache

Disable the local or remote build cache for the run.

CAVEATS

Requires BUILD files defining targets. Initial setup has learning curve. Large codebase initial run can be slow.

HISTORY

Pants was originally developed at Twitter around 2011. Version 2.x was a ground-up rewrite focusing on Python ergonomics. Now maintained by Toolchain as an open-source project.