Automate Your PyPI Releases with This Simple Publishing Script

Published August 22, 2025 · by Eric Wilson · in python

Discover a powerful, interactive script that automates version management, dependency checks, and uploading to PyPI, streamlining your entire release workflow.

Publishing a Python package to the Python Package Index (PyPI) is a rite of passage for many developers. But while twine has made the upload process itself straightforward, the entire release workflow—from updating version numbers to building the package—can still be a manual and error-prone affair.

Did you remember to update the version in pyproject.toml? Is the __init__.py file in sync? Are all build dependencies installed? Forgetting one of these steps can lead to a broken release.

To solve this, I created publish-to-pypi-scripts, a set of scripts that provides a comprehensive, interactive, and automated workflow for releasing your Python packages.

The Problem with Manual Releases

A typical release process involves a checklist of manual steps:

  1. Ensure build, twine, and toml are installed.
  2. Update the version number in pyproject.toml.
  3. Propagate that version number to your package's __init__.py or a dedicated version.py file.
  4. Delete any old distribution files.
  5. Run the build process.
  6. Finally, run twine upload.

This workflow is ripe for automation.

A Better Way: The publish-to-pypi Script

publish-to-pypi-scripts consolidates this entire process into a single, interactive shell script. Just place publish_to_pypi.sh in your project's root directory, make it executable, and run it.

chmod +x ./publish_to_pypi.sh
./publish_to_pypi.sh

The script guides you through the process with clear prompts, handling all the tedious steps along the way.

Key Features

  • Interactive Interface: The script asks you what to do, from updating the version to publishing to TestPyPI or the real PyPI.
  • Automatic Dependency Checks: It ensures build, twine, and toml are installed before starting.
  • Centralized Version Management: It reads the version from pyproject.toml and automatically updates a version.py or __init__.py file, ensuring your package's version is always in sync.
  • Secure Credential Management: It helps you create a local .pypirc file to store your PyPI API tokens securely, so you never have to type your credentials into the command line.
  • CI/CD Mode: For automated environments, you can run the script in a non-interactive mode, making it perfect for GitHub Actions or other CI/CD pipelines.
  • Self-Updating: The script can even check for and download the latest version of itself, so your release tooling is always up to date.

How It Works

The publish_to_pypi.sh script is a simple wrapper that downloads and runs the main Python script, publish_to_pypi.py. This Python script contains all the logic for parsing your pyproject.toml, managing files, and interacting with twine.

This design keeps the tool self-contained and easy to add to any project without complex installation steps.

Get Started Today

Stop wasting time on manual releases and bring automation to your Python packaging workflow.

  1. Visit the publish-to-pypi-scripts GitHub repository.
  2. Grab the publish_to_pypi.sh script and add it to your project.
  3. Run it and enjoy a smoother, more reliable release process.

By automating your releases, you can publish new versions with confidence, knowing that the tedious details are handled for you.

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