Including extra files?

[rdong8]

.
├── abi/
├── charts/
├── Containerfile
├── justfile
├── pyproject.toml
├── README.md
├── run.sh
├── src/

In src/mypkg/__main__:main is the entrypoint to my CLI application. I want to be able to access some JSON files in abi/ via with open("abi/dir/file.json") as file, how do I do this? I've tried all of these so far:

[tool.hatch.build]
include = ["abi/**/*.json"]

[tool.hatch.build.targets.wheel]
packages = ["src/mypkg"]
include = [
    "abi/**/*.json",
    "src/mypkg/**",
]

[tool.hatch.build.targets.wheel.force-include]
"abi" = "abi"

I always end up with an error like this:

Or this:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/rd8/.pyenv/versions/3.12.5/envs/test/lib/python3.12/site-packages/mypkg/__main__.py", line 35, in load_abi
    with open(path) as abi:
         ^^^^^^^^^^
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'abi/dir/file.json'

[tayfuryldz]

The build configuration and the runtime lookup are two separate issues here.

force-include can put that directory into the wheel, but this mapping:

[tool.hatch.build.targets.wheel.force-include]
"abi" = "abi"

places it at the distribution root, alongside the installed package. It does not make open("abi/dir/file.json") relative to the wheel/install location. A relative open(...) is resolved against the process's current working directory, which can be anywhere when somebody invokes the installed CLI.

For application data, the robust layout is to install the JSON under the import package and resolve it as a package resource. For example:

[tool.hatch.build.targets.wheel.force-include]
"abi" = "mypkg/abi"

and then:

from importlib.resources import files

path = files("mypkg").joinpath("abi", "dir", "file.json")
with path.open("r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
    ...

If abi is already inside src/mypkg, you normally don't need that forced mapping at all; make sure the JSON files are selected into the wheel and use importlib.resources the same way.

Current Hatchling documents force-include as an exact source-to-distribution-path mapping, and directory sources are included recursively. It therefore solves what path goes into the artifact, not what directory the application will run from.

You can verify the packaging side independently with:

hatch build -t wheel
unzip -l dist/*.whl

(or inspect the wheel with your preferred archive tool). If the files appear under mypkg/abi/..., packaging is correct; using a package resource then removes the dependency on the caller's current working directory.