setup-uv

Set up your GitHub Actions workflow with a specific version of uv.

• Install a version of uv and add it to PATH
• Cache the installed version of uv to speed up consecutive runs on self-hosted runners
• Register problem matchers for error output
• (Optional) Persist the uv's cache in the GitHub Actions Cache
• (Optional) Verify the checksum of the downloaded uv executable

Contents

• Usage
  • Install the latest version (default)
  • Install a specific version
  • Install a version by supplying a semver range
  • Python version
  • Validate checksum
  • Enable Caching
    • Cache dependency glob
  • Local cache path
  • Disable cache pruning
  • Ignore nothing to cache
  • GitHub authentication token
  • UV_TOOL_DIR
  • UV_TOOL_BIN_DIR
  • Tilde Expansion
• How it works
• FAQ

Usage

Install the latest version (default)

- name: Install the latest version of uv
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    version: "latest"

For an example workflow, see here.

Install a specific version

- name: Install a specific version of uv
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    version: "0.4.4"

Install a version by supplying a semver range

You can specify a semver range to install the latest version that satisfies the range.

- name: Install a semver range of uv
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    version: ">=0.4.0"

- name: Pinning a minor version of uv
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    version: "0.4.x"

Python version

You can use the input python-version to

• set the environment variable UV_PYTHON for the rest of your workflow
• create a new virtual environment with the specified python version
• activate the virtual environment for the rest of your workflow

This will override any python version specifications in pyproject.toml and .python-version

- name: Install the latest version of uv and set the python version to 3.13t
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    python-version: 3.13t
- run: uv pip install --python=3.13t pip

You can combine this with a matrix to test multiple python versions:

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        python-version: ["3.9", "3.10", "3.11", "3.12"]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Install the latest version of uv and set the python version
        uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
        with:
          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
      - name: Test with python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
        run: uv run --frozen pytest

Validate checksum

You can specify a checksum to validate the downloaded executable. Checksums up to the default version are automatically verified by this action. The sha256 hashes can be found on the releases page of the uv repo.

- name: Install a specific version and validate the checksum
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    version: "0.3.1"
    checksum: "e11b01402ab645392c7ad6044db63d37e4fd1e745e015306993b07695ea5f9f8"

Enable caching

If you enable caching, the uv cache will be uploaded to the GitHub Actions cache. This can speed up runs that reuse the cache by several minutes.

Tip

On self-hosted runners this is usually not needed since the cache generated by uv on the runner's filesystem is not removed after a run. For more details see Local cache path.

You can optionally define a custom cache key suffix.

- name: Enable caching and define a custom cache key suffix
  id: setup-uv
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    enable-cache: true
    cache-suffix: "optional-suffix"

When the cache was successfully restored, the output cache-hit will be set to true and you can use it in subsequent steps. For example, to use the cache in the above case:

- name: Do something if the cache was restored
  if: steps.setup-uv.outputs.cache-hit == 'true'
  run: echo "Cache was restored"

Cache dependency glob

If you want to control when the GitHub Actions cache is invalidated, specify a glob pattern with the cache-dependency-glob input. The GitHub Actions cache will be invalidated if any file matching the glob pattern changes. If you use relative paths, they are relative to the repository root.

Note

The default is

cache-dependency-glob: |
  **/requirements*.txt
  **/uv.lock

- name: Define a cache dependency glob
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    enable-cache: true
    cache-dependency-glob: "**/pyproject.toml"

- name: Define a list of cache dependency globs
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    enable-cache: true
    cache-dependency-glob: |
      **/requirements*.txt
      **/pyproject.toml

- name: Define an absolute cache dependency glob
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    enable-cache: true
    cache-dependency-glob: "/tmp/my-folder/requirements*.txt"

- name: Never invalidate the cache
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    enable-cache: true
    cache-dependency-glob: ""

Local cache path

This action controls where uv stores its cache on the runner's filesystem by setting UV_CACHE_DIR. It defaults to setup-uv-cache in the TMP dir, D:\a\_temp\uv-tool-dir on Windows and /tmp/setup-uv-cache on Linux/macOS. You can change the default by specifying the path with the cache-local-path input.

- name: Define a custom uv cache path
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    cache-local-path: "/path/to/cache"

Disable cache pruning

By default, the uv cache is pruned after every run, removing pre-built wheels, but retaining any wheels that were built from source. On GitHub-hosted runners, it's typically faster to omit those pre-built wheels from the cache (and instead re-download them from the registry on each run). However, on self-hosted or local runners, preserving the cache may be more efficient. See the documentation for more information.

If you want to persist the entire cache across runs, disable cache pruning with the prune-cache input.

- name: Don't prune the cache before saving it
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    enable-cache: true
    prune-cache: false

Ignore nothing to cache

By default, the action will fail if caching is enabled but there is nothing to upload (the uv cache directory does not exist). If you want to ignore this, set the ignore-nothing-to-cache input to true.

- name: Ignore nothing to cache
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    enable-cache: true
    ignore-nothing-to-cache: true

GitHub authentication token

This action uses the GitHub API to fetch the uv release artifacts. To avoid hitting the GitHub API rate limit too quickly, an authentication token can be provided via the github-token input. By default, the GITHUB_TOKEN secret is used, which is automatically provided by GitHub Actions.

If the default permissions for the GitHub token are not sufficient, you can provide a custom GitHub token with the necessary permissions.

- name: Install the latest version of uv with a custom GitHub token
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.CUSTOM_GITHUB_TOKEN }}

UV_TOOL_DIR

On Windows UV_TOOL_DIR is set to uv-tool-dir in the TMP dir (e.g. D:\a\_temp\uv-tool-dir). On GitHub hosted runners this is on the much faster D: drive.

On all other platforms the tool environments are placed in the default location.

If you want to change this behaviour (especially on self-hosted runners) you can use the tool-dir input:

- name: Install the latest version of uv with a custom tool dir
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    tool-dir: "/path/to/tool/dir"

UV_TOOL_BIN_DIR

On Windows UV_TOOL_BIN_DIR is set to uv-tool-bin-dir in the TMP dir (e.g. D:\a\_temp\uv-tool-bin-dir). On GitHub hosted runners this is on the much faster D: drive. This path is also automatically added to the PATH.

On all other platforms the tool binaries get installed to the default location.

If you want to change this behaviour (especially on self-hosted runners) you can use the tool-bin-dir input:

- name: Install the latest version of uv with a custom tool bin dir
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    tool-bin-dir: "/path/to/tool-bin/dir"

Tilde Expansion

This action supports expanding the ~ character to the user's home directory for the following inputs:

• cache-local-path
• tool-dir
• tool-bin-dir
• cache-dependency-glob

- name: Expand the tilde character
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    cache-local-path: "~/path/to/cache"
    tool-dir: "~/path/to/tool/dir"
    tool-bin-dir: "~/path/to/tool-bin/dir"
    cache-dependency-glob: "~/my-cache-buster"

How it works

This action downloads uv from the uv repo's official GitHub Releases and uses the GitHub Actions Toolkit to cache it as a tool to speed up consecutive runs on self-hosted runners.

The installed version of uv is then added to the runner PATH, enabling subsequent steps to invoke it by name (uv).

FAQ

Do I still need actions/setup-python alongside setup-uv?

With setup-uv, you can install a specific version of Python using uv python install rather than relying on actions/setup-python.

Using actions/setup-python can be faster, because GitHub caches the Python versions alongside the runner.

For example:

- name: Checkout the repository
  uses: actions/checkout@main
- name: Install the latest version of uv
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    enable-cache: true
- name: Test
  run: uv run --frozen pytest  # Uses the Python version automatically installed by uv

To install a specific version of Python, use uv python install:

- name: Install the latest version of uv
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
  with:
    enable-cache: true
- name: Install Python 3.12
  run: uv python install 3.12

What is the default version?

By default, this action installs the latest version of uv.

If you require the installed version in subsequent steps of your workflow, use the uv-version output:

- name: Checkout the repository
  uses: actions/checkout@main
- name: Install the default version of uv
  id: setup-uv
  uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
- name: Print the installed version
  run: echo "Installed uv version is ${{ steps.setup-uv.outputs.uv-version }}"

Acknowledgements

setup-uv was initially written and published by Kevin Stillhammer before moving under the official Astral GitHub organization. You can support Kevin's work in open source on Buy me a coffee or PayPal.

License

MIT