Allow users to pre-define dependency metadata

[charliermarsh]

For packages that don't declare static metadata, it can be a pain to require building the package just to resolve. For example, you might have a dependency that can't be built on ARM, but doesn't declare static metadata. In that case, users can't resolve on ARM, even if the dependency is never installed on ARM (i.e., it has an environment marker).

I think it'd be neat to allow users to define static metadata for their dependencies as an escape hatch, like:

[tool.uv.dependencies]
my-dependency = ["click>0.8"]

[YouJiacheng]

I planned to file this issue separately, haha. (but I temporarily left my laptop until now) #7291

[charliermarsh]

Yeah this would at least make it possible to uv lock without having to build Chumpy at all in your case :)

[YouJiacheng]

I think this should be beyond the direct dependency of the user's project. It should act as hand-crafted resolution rules.

[charliermarsh]

Yeah I think this should be "allowed" for any dependency.

[zanieb]

Does this override existing metadata or only get used when not available? I'm a little so-so on the naming because it collides with general dependency groups but otherwise it sounds cool.

[charliermarsh]

I think it would override... It would also allow you to (e.g.) remove dependencies unlike --overrides, if you know all packages that were pulling them in.

[charliermarsh]

(I agree tool.uv.dependencies is bad.)