Initial configuration
Creating the initial pants.toml config file.
Pants has a robust options system, allowing you to configure hundreds of options. Every Pants option can be set via a command-line flag, an environment variable, or, most commonly, a config file.
The options system is described in detail here. This page will set up your initial Pants config file.
1. Create the config file
Pants configuration lives in a file called pants.toml in the root of the repo. This file uses the TOML format.
If you haven't yet, create a pants.toml file:
[GLOBAL]
pants_version = "$PANTS_VERSION"
where $PANTS_VERSION is the version of Pants you want to pin your repo to. When you'd like to upgrade Pants, edit pants_version and the ./pants script will self-update on the next run.
2. Configure source roots
Some project layouts use top-level folders for namespace purposes, but have the code live underneath. However, the code's imports will ignore these top-level folders, thanks to mechanisms like the $PYTHONPATH, the JVM classpath, and the $GOROOT. For example, to import the file src/my_project/app.py, many projects use import my_project.app, rather than import src.my_project.app. Source roots are how Pants understands these imports.
By default, Pants recognizes having no source root, or having src, src/python, or src/py as source roots. If your project has a different structure, see Source roots for how to configure them, and for examples of different project structures with Pants.
3. Enable Backends
Most Pants functionality is provided via pluggable backends. You enable a backend by listing it under the backend_packages config key in pants.toml.
For example, to enable Python support:
[GLOBAL]
...
backend_packages = ["pants.backend.python"]
4. Create BUILD files
Finally, once you have enabled the backends for the language(s) you'd like to use, you will need to create BUILD files that declare the metadata for your files.
See Create initial BUILD files for more information about how to do that.