---
id: pyc-wheel
version: "2.4.3"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# pyc-wheel — Compile all py files in a wheel to pyc files.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 213.2K/mo

## What it is and what it does

pyc_wheel is a command-line tool that processes wheel archives to pre-compile their Python source files into bytecode. It reads a .whl file, compiles all .py modules to .pyc, and rewrites the wheel in place or with optional renaming to indicate the Python version used for compilation. The tool supports selective compilation via regex exclusion patterns and can create backups before modification.

Typical use is in build pipelines where you want to distribute pre-compiled wheels for faster installation or to obfuscate source code. It depends on typing-extensions, setuptools, and pkg-about, and runs on Python 3.11 or higher across CPython, PyPy, and GraalPy. The package is actively maintained and carries no known security vulnerabilities.

Use it for:

- Pre-compile wheels in CI/CD pipelines to reduce installation time on target systems
- Distribute bytecode-only wheels to obscure source code while preserving functionality
- Rename generic py3 wheels to version-specific cp313 wheels after compilation
- Batch-process multiple wheels with selective file exclusion via regex patterns

## Worth the install?

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

Compiles all Python source files (.py) in a wheel to bytecode (.pyc) files, optionally renaming the wheel to reflect the target Python version.

Yes, if you need to pre-compile wheels in a build pipeline or distribution workflow. Low friction, no vulnerabilities, actively maintained, and permissive license. Not necessary for typical development; primarily a packaging tool for release or deployment automation.

## Install

pip install pyc-wheel
uv add pyc-wheel
poetry add pyc-wheel

## Installing pyc-wheel

Before you install: Low install friction; pure Python wheel with minimal dependencies (typing-extensions, setuptools, pkg-about). Actively maintained with recent release (73 days ago) and no known vulnerabilities.

License in practice: MIT license (permissive) allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; attribution required.

Quickstart:

pip install pyc-wheel
python3 -m pyc_wheel your_wheel-1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl
# or with renaming:
python3.13 -m pyc_wheel --rename your_wheel-1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl

Requires Python 3.11 or higher; operates on wheel files, not source distributions.

Verify before relying:

- Performance impact of bytecode compilation on wheel size and import speed
- Compatibility with non-CPython implementations beyond PyPy and GraalPy

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 213.2K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

wheel pyc compilation, compile python wheel bytecode, pyc wheel builder, wheel optimization, python bytecode packaging, wheel-packaging, bytecode-compilation

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