Incremental
A CalVer version manager that supports the future.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you use setuptools or Hatchling and want to adopt CalVer versioning with automated version management. The low install friction, active maintenance, permissive license, and lack of known vulnerabilities make it a safe choice. Not necessary if you prefer manual version management or use a different versioning scheme (semantic versioning, etc.).AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.8 or later; integration with setuptools or Hatchling build systems is the primary use case.
- Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel and only two lightweight runtime dependencies (packaging and tomli).
- The project is actively maintained with recent commits and has been stable since its 2015 inception.
License · maintenance · safety
permissive license (permissive) — Licensed under the MIT License (permissive), which allows free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions.
last release 2025-11-28 (259 days) · last repo commit 2026-06-26 · 144 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 17,767,401 downloads/mo, #1,104 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
# Install
pip install incremental
# In your pyproject.toml, add to build-system requires and mark version dynamic:
[build-system]
requires = ["setuptools", "incremental>=24.7.2"]
[project]
dynamic = ["version"]
# Then initialize:
incremental update --create
# In your package's _version.py:
from incremental import Version
__version__ = Version("mypackage", 24, 11, 0)- Whether the click dependency mentioned in the description is actually required at runtime or only for the CLI tool.
- Performance characteristics when managing versions in very large codebases with many version references.
What it is and what it does
Incremental is a version management tool designed for projects using CalVer (Calendar Versioning) in the YY.MM.PATCH format. It integrates with setuptools and Hatchling as a build plugin to automatically manage version numbers stored in a _version.py file within your package, eliminating the need to manually edit version strings in multiple places.
The tool provides a command-line interface to bump versions (release candidates, patches, development releases, and post-releases) and automatically updates indeterminate version markers like "NEXT" throughout your codebase to concrete version numbers. It supports both build-time version injection and runtime version access through the incremental.Version class, making it useful for projects that need to expose version information to users or documentation.
Use it for
- Automate version bumping in CI/CD pipelines without manually editing version files or configuration.
- Manage release candidates and development versions alongside stable releases in a structured CalVer scheme.
- Keep documentation and code comments synchronized with the current version by updating indeterminate version markers automatically.
- Integrate version management into setuptools or Hatchling-based build workflows without external version files.
- Expose the current package version at runtime through the incremental.Version API for version-aware application logic.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you use setuptools or Hatchling and want to adopt CalVer versioning with automated version management.
The low install friction, active maintenance, permissive license, and lack of known vulnerabilities make it a safe choice. Not necessary if you prefer manual version management or use a different versioning scheme (semantic versioning, etc.).
Install
incremental on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel and only two lightweight runtime dependencies (packaging and tomli). The project is actively maintained with recent commits and has been stable since its 2015 inception.
Requires Python 3.8 or later; integration with setuptools or Hatchling build systems is the primary use case.
License in practice
Licensed under the MIT License (permissive), which allows free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions.
Quickstart
# Install
pip install incremental
# In your pyproject.toml, add to build-system requires and mark version dynamic:
[build-system]
requires = ["setuptools", "incremental>=24.7.2"]
[project]
dynamic = ["version"]
# Then initialize:
incremental update --create
# In your package's _version.py:
from incremental import Version
__version__ = Version("mypackage", 24, 11, 0)Verify before relying
- Whether the click dependency mentioned in the description is actually required at runtime or only for the CLI tool.
- Performance characteristics when managing versions in very large codebases with many version references.
Package facts
| License | permissive license permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.8 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 2 packagespackagingtomli |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 259 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 17,767,401 / month, #1,104 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Framework :: HatchFramework :: Setuptools PluginIntended Audience :: DevelopersLicense :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9 |
Evidence: incremental-24.11.0-py3-none-any.whl
Tags
Let your AI agent find packages like this
Example. Real query, live index.
You found this page by searching. An agent finds it by wishing: SkillFed indexes 14,416 PyPI packages by what they can do, searchable in plain language.
wish › “calver version management”
- IncrementalIncremental is a CalVer version manager that automates version…
- bumpverBumpVer is a CLI tool that searches for and updates version strings…
- awesomeversionParse and compare version strings across multiple formats (semantic…
Give your agent the search over MCP, or paste the wish link into any chat.
More Build Tools packages
Provides reusable utilities for Python packaging interoperability, including version handling, specifiers, markers, requirements, tags, and metadata parsing according to standards like PEP 440 and PEP 425.
Wraps any iterable to display a real-time progress bar in the terminal or Jupyter notebook, showing iteration count, elapsed time, and estimated time remaining.
pip is the standard installer for Python packages, enabling you to download and install packages from the Python Package Index and other indexes into your Python environment.
Hatchling is a standards-compliant Python build backend that handles packaging, metadata, and distribution of Python projects when configured in a project's pyproject.toml file.
Generates Python gRPC service stubs and message classes from Protocol Buffer definitions, enabling developers to build gRPC clients and servers.
pre-commit is a framework for installing and running git hooks written in any language before commits are made, automating code quality and validation checks across multi-language projects.
Install it if your team needs consistent, automated validation at commit time.
See also bump-my-version · setuptools-git-versioning · hatch-vcs · bumpversion · bumpver · bump2version · bump · hatch-regex-commit · setuptools-scm