entrypoints
Discover and load entry points from installed packages.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
No for new projects—use the standard library alternative instead. Yes-with-conditions for legacy codebases that already depend on entrypoints or have specific compatibility constraints. The package is dormant, has no known vulnerabilities, and installs cleanly, but active development has ceased.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.6 or later.
- Low friction installation with no runtime dependencies.
- However, the package is in dormant maintenance status (last release 2022-02-02) and explicitly marked as maintenance-only; the description recommends using the standard library alternative instead for new code.
License · maintenance · safety
permissive license (permissive) — Licensed under MIT (permissive), so you can use this in commercial or proprietary projects without restriction.
last release 2022-02-02 (1654 days) · last repo commit 2024-12-03 · 77 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 37,929,135 downloads/mo, #718 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install entrypoints
import entrypoints
scripts = entrypoints.get_group_all('console_scripts')
for ep in scripts:
print(ep.name, ep.load())- Whether the standard library importlib.metadata now covers all use cases that entrypoints was designed for.
- Current adoption rate and whether major packages still depend on entrypoints or have migrated.
- Specific scenarios where entrypoints remains preferable to the standard library alternative.
What it is and what it does
Entrypoints is a focused library for discovering and loading entry points from installed Python packages. It was designed as a faster, lighter alternative to setuptools' pkg_resources module, which performs expensive filesystem scans at import time. Entrypoints avoids that overhead by deferring scans until you actually request an entry point group, making it suitable for environments with many installed packages.
The package is now in maintenance-only mode because the Python standard library provides similar functionality. The description explicitly recommends using the standard library alternative instead for new code. Entrypoints remains useful for legacy codebases or when targeting older Python versions, but it receives no active development.
Use it for
- Load console_scripts entry points to discover shell commands provided by installed packages.
- Build a plugin system where applications discover plugins by querying entry point groups.
- Migrate away from pkg_resources in performance-sensitive environments where import time matters.
- Support codebases that cannot use the standard library alternative.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
No for new projects—use the standard library alternative instead.
Yes-with-conditions for legacy codebases that already depend on entrypoints or have specific compatibility constraints. The package is dormant, has no known vulnerabilities, and installs cleanly, but active development has ceased.
Install
entrypoints on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction installation with no runtime dependencies. However, the package is in dormant maintenance status (last release 2022-02-02) and explicitly marked as maintenance-only; the description recommends using the standard library alternative instead for new code.
Requires Python 3.6 or later.
License in practice
Licensed under MIT (permissive), so you can use this in commercial or proprietary projects without restriction.
Quickstart
pip install entrypoints
import entrypoints
scripts = entrypoints.get_group_all('console_scripts')
for ep in scripts:
print(ep.name, ep.load())Verify before relying
- Whether the standard library importlib.metadata now covers all use cases that entrypoints was designed for.
- Current adoption rate and whether major packages still depend on entrypoints or have migrated.
- Specific scenarios where entrypoints remains preferable to the standard library alternative.
Package facts
| License | permissive license permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.6 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Dormant 1,654 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 37,929,135 / month, #718 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | License :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseProgramming Language :: Python :: 3 |
Evidence: entrypoints-0.4-py3-none-any.whl
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