Why ‘uv’ Might Be the Only Python Tool You Need for Scripts

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash — uv light with python

You open a notebook or script to analyze some data.

You want to import pandas, maybe seaborn, maybe requests — but now you’re spending the next 10 minutes deciding:

- Should I make a new venv?

- Should I run pip install, or maybe poetry add?

- Where was that project’s requirements.txt again?

You just wanted to run a script. Now you’re doing environment triage.

Data Scientists, rejoice. There’s a new tool that fixes all of this — it’s called uv.

What Is uv?

uv is a next-gen Python tool that:

• Installs packages much faster than pip (Rust-powered 💨)
• Automatically manages virtual environments
• Supports inline dependencies in scripts
• Fetches Python versions for you — no pyenv needed
• Handles one-off CLI tools (black, ruff, etc.) cleanly

Think: pip + poetry + pyenv + virtualenv, minus the pain.

5 uv Tricks That Make Data Science Easier

1. Run Any Script, With Deps, No Setup