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AutoReqGen

A smarter alternative to pipreqs — AutoReqGen scans your entire project recursively, accurately generates requirements.txt with exact versions, formats your code using tools like Black or isort, and even auto-generates documentation from your docstrings. One tool to automate and optimize your Python workflow.

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Features

• Auto-generate requirements.txt with or without version numbers
• Filters standard library & local modules
• Format code using black, isort, or autopep8
• Auto-generate DOCUMENTATION.md from your codebase docstrings
• Live import watching with autoreqgen watch
• Add packages with autoreqgen add (auto-installs and appends)
• autoreqgen freeze to lock all installed packages (sorted & deduplicated)
• autoreqgen start to create a new virtual environment using system Pythons
• --as-json and --all flag support
• Auto detects .env files for configuration
• CLI aliases like g for generate, f for format, etc.

Quickstart

Install the package

pip install autoreqgen

Scan your project

autoreqgen scan .

Generate requirements.txt with version numbers

autoreqgen generate .

Add a package and update requirements.txt

autoreqgen add requests

Format the code using black

autoreqgen format black .

Generate documentation

autoreqgen docs . --output docs.md

Watch your project and update requirements.txt on change

autoreqgen watch .

Start a new project virtual environment

autoreqgen start

Freeze your current environment into a clean requirements.txt

autoreqgen freeze

Example Structure

myproject/
├── main.py
├── utils/
│   └── helper.py
├── requirements.txt
├── DOCUMENTATION.md

Detailed Usage

Scanning Projects

Scan a project to identify all Python imports:

autoreqgen scan /path/to/project

Generating Requirements

Generate a requirements.txt file with all necessary packages:

# Default (with version numbers)
autoreqgen generate /path/to/project

# Without version numbers
autoreqgen generate /path/to/project --no-versions

# Output as JSON
autoreqgen generate /path/to/project --as-json

# Include all imports (even standard library)
autoreqgen generate /path/to/project --all

Dependency Management

Add packages to your project and requirements.txt:

# Add single package
autoreqgen add requests

# Add multiple packages
autoreqgen add requests pandas numpy

# Add with specific version
autoreqgen add "requests>=2.25.0"

Freeze your environment to create a reproducible requirements.txt:

autoreqgen freeze

Code Formatting

Format your code using different tools:

# Format with black
autoreqgen format black /path/to/project

# Format with isort
autoreqgen format isort /path/to/project

# Format with autopep8
autoreqgen format autopep8 /path/to/project

# Chain formatters
autoreqgen format black,isort /path/to/project

Documentation Generation

Generate documentation from your docstrings:

# Basic usage
autoreqgen docs /path/to/project

# Specify output file
autoreqgen docs /path/to/project --output API.md

# Generate for specific modules
autoreqgen docs /path/to/project --modules main.py,utils

Live Watching

Watch your project for changes and automatically update requirements.txt:

# Watch project
autoreqgen watch /path/to/project

# Watch with specific interval (in seconds)
autoreqgen watch /path/to/project --interval 5

# Watch and format on change
autoreqgen watch /path/to/project --format black

Project Initialization

Start a new Python project with a virtual environment:

# Create a new virtual environment in the current directory
autoreqgen start

# Specify Python version
autoreqgen start --python 3.10

# Create with specific packages
autoreqgen start --packages "requests pandas"

Configuration

AutoReqGen can be configured using environment variables or .env files:

AUTOREQGEN_DEFAULT_FORMAT=black
AUTOREQGEN_IGNORE_DIRS=tests,examples
AUTOREQGEN_INCLUDE_DEV=true
AUTOREQGEN_VERBOSE=true

Google Colab Compatibility Disclaimer

AutoReqGen is designed to run in standard Python environments (local, virtualenv, Conda, etc.). While many features work fine in Google Colab, there are some important limitations to be aware of:

Features that work in Colab:

Feature	Status	Description
scan	✅	Scans Python files or projects to detect external imports.
generate	✅	Generates requirements.txt from scanned imports.
add <package>	✅	Installs a package and appends it to requirements.txt.
freeze	✅	Freezes the current environment (via pip freeze) into requirements.txt.
docs	✅	Extracts module, class, and function docstrings and generates markdown docs.

Features that do NOT work in Colab:

Feature	Status	Reason
start (virtualenv creation)	❌	Google Colab does not allow creating or managing virtual environments.
watch (live import updates)	❌	watchdog cannot run in sandboxed Colab environments due to limited file system access and event monitoring.

Colab-Specific Handling

When you run AutoReqGen inside Google Colab:

• The start command is disabled to prevent errors.
• A clear warning will be shown to the user:

  ⚠️  Virtual environment creation is not supported in Google Colab.
  

Tip

You can still install AutoReqGen in Colab and use it like this:

!pip install autoreqgen
!autoreqgen scan .
!autoreqgen generate .
!autoreqgen freeze

---

For full functionality, we recommend running AutoReqGen in a local or server-based Python environment (outside Colab).

🔌 Integration Examples

Pre-commit Integration

Add to your .pre-commit-config.yaml:

repos:
-   repo: local
    hooks:
    -   id: autoreqgen
        name: AutoReqGen
        entry: autoreqgen generate .
        language: system
        pass_filenames: false

GitHub Actions Workflow

name: Update Requirements

on:
  push:
    paths:
      - '**.py'

jobs:
  update-requirements:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v4
        with:
          python-version: '3.10'
      - name: Install AutoReqGen
        run: pip install autoreqgen
      - name: Update requirements.txt
        run: autoreqgen generate .
      - name: Commit changes
        uses: EndBug/add-and-commit@v9
        with:
          message: 'chore: update requirements.txt'
          add: 'requirements.txt'

Docker Usage

Example Dockerfile:

FROM python:3.10-slim

WORKDIR /app

COPY . .

RUN pip install autoreqgen
RUN autoreqgen generate .
RUN pip install -r requirements.txt

CMD ["python", "main.py"]

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