---
id: dist-meta
version: "0.9.0"
license: Copyright (c) 2021 Dominic Davis-Foster Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in… (full text in the JSON record)
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# dist-meta — Parse and create Python distribution metadata.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 811.0K/mo

## What it is and what it does

dist-meta is a library for reading and writing Python distribution metadata—the standardized information stored in dist-info directories that describes a package's dependencies, version, entry points, and other installation details. It abstracts the parsing of metadata files (METADATA, WHEEL, entry_points.txt, and related formats) into a programmatic interface, making it easier to inspect or construct package metadata without manually parsing text files.

The package is aimed at developers building packaging tools, build systems, or utilities that need to inspect or manipulate Python package metadata. It depends on domdf-python-tools, handy-archives, and packaging, and supports Python 3.6 through 3.12 on CPython and PyPy. The codebase is actively maintained and carries type hints.

Use it for:

- Inspect metadata of installed packages programmatically in a build or deployment tool
- Generate or validate dist-info metadata when creating custom Python packages
- Extract dependency information from wheel or installed package metadata
- Automate metadata-driven workflows in package management or CI/CD systems
- Parse and transform metadata across different Python package formats

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Parse and create Python distribution metadata from dist-info directories and related sources, handling package metadata standards for PyPI and distribution workflows.

Yes, if you need to read or write Python distribution metadata programmatically. The package has low install friction, active maintenance, permissive licensing, and no known vulnerabilities. It is a specialized tool—install it only if your workflow involves inspecting or constructing package metadata; it is not a general-purpose utility.

## Install

pip install dist-meta
uv add dist-meta
poetry add dist-meta

## Installing dist-meta

Before you install: Low friction install with three stable runtime dependencies (domdf-python-tools, handy-archives, packaging). Active maintenance with a commit as recent as 2026-07-08, though the last release was 548 days ago.

License in practice: MIT license permits commercial and private use, modification, and redistribution with minimal restrictions—only requiring preservation of copyright and license notices.

Quickstart:

$ python -m pip install dist-meta

import dist_meta
# Parse metadata from a dist-info directory or package

Verify before relying:

- Specific API surface and whether it covers all standard metadata fields (METADATA, WHEEL, entry_points.txt, etc.)
- Whether the package handles edge cases in non-standard or legacy metadata formats
- Performance characteristics when parsing large or complex metadata structures

## Package facts

- License: Copyright (c) 2021 Dominic Davis-Foster Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in… (full text in the JSON record) (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 811.0K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

parse python package metadata, dist-info metadata reader, python distribution metadata, pypi metadata extraction, packaging metadata tools, wheel metadata parser, python package info, packaging, metadata, build-tools

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/dist-meta) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/dist-meta/)