---
id: setuptools-markdown
version: "0.4.1"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: abandoned
---

# setuptools-markdown — [Deprecated] Use Markdown for your project description

License: permissive · Maintenance: abandoned · Downloads: 110.3K/mo

## What it is and what it does

setuptools-markdown is a setuptools plugin that integrates Markdown support into your package build process. During setup, it reads a Markdown file you specify, converts it to reStructuredText using pypandoc, and stores the result in your package's long_description metadata field for PyPI. This was useful before PyPI and setuptools added native Markdown support.

The package is deprecated and no longer maintained. The maintainer explicitly recommends using setuptools' built-in Markdown functionality instead. It has not been updated since 2019, and the repository shows no activity since 2022. If you are starting a new project, you should use modern setuptools features rather than this plugin.

Use it for:

- Maintaining legacy packages that were built with this plugin before native Markdown support existed
- Converting existing setup.py configurations that depend on setuptools-markdown without immediate refactoring
- Understanding how Markdown-to-reStructuredText conversion worked in older setuptools workflows

## Worth the install?

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

Converts Markdown files to reStructuredText during setuptools builds, allowing you to use Markdown for your package's long_description metadata instead of reStructuredText.

No. The package is abandoned and explicitly deprecated by its maintainer. Modern setuptools and PyPI support Markdown natively without requiring this plugin. Only install if maintaining legacy code that already depends on it.

## Install

pip install setuptools-markdown
uv add setuptools-markdown
poetry add setuptools-markdown

## Installing setuptools-markdown

Before you install: Low install friction with a single runtime dependency (pypandoc), but the package is abandoned—last release was 2019-08-14 and last commit 2022-05-11. The maintainer's own documentation explicitly recommends against using this in favor of built-in setuptools functionality.

License in practice: MIT license is permissive and poses no restrictions on use or redistribution.

Quickstart:

pip install setuptools-markdown

In setup.py:
from setuptools import setup
setup(
    setup_requires=['setuptools-markdown'],
    long_description_markdown_filename='README.md',
)

pandoc system library must be installed before running setup

Verify before relying:

- Whether pandoc system library installation is required before pip install succeeds
- Compatibility with modern setuptools versions released after 2019

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: abandoned
- Downloads: 110.3K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

markdown to rst conversion, setuptools markdown support, pypi markdown description, markdown long_description, setup.py markdown plugin, deprecated, legacy

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