Installation¶

As tool¶

tox is a CLI tool that needs a Python interpreter (version 3.7 or higher) to run. We recommend either pipx or ruff to install tox into an isolated environment. This has the added benefit that later you’ll be able to upgrade tox without affecting other parts of the system. We provide method for pip too here but we discourage that path if you can:

# install uv per https://docs.astral.sh/uv/#getting-started
uv tool install tox
tox --help

pipx

python -m pip install pipx-in-pipx --user
pipx install tox
tox --help

pip

python -m pip install --user tox
python -m tox --help

You can install it within the global Python interpreter itself (perhaps as a user package via the --user flag). Be cautious if you are using a Python installation that is managed by your operating system or another package manager. pip might not coordinate with those tools, and may leave your system in an inconsistent state. Note, if you go down this path you need to ensure pip is new enough per the subsections below

wheel¶

Installing tox via a wheel (default with pip) requires an installer that can understand the python-requires tag (see PEP 503), with pip this is version 9.0.0 (released in November 2016). Furthermore, in case you’re not installing it via PyPI you need to use a mirror that correctly forwards the python-requires tag (notably the OpenStack mirrors don’t do this, or older devpi/devpi versions - added with version 4.7.0).

sdist¶

When installing via a source distribution you need an installer that handles the PEP 517 specification. In case of pip this is version 18.0.0 or later (released in July 2018). If you cannot upgrade your pip to support this you need to ensure that the build requirements from pyproject.toml are satisfied before triggering the installation.

via `setup.py`¶

We don’t recommend and officially support this method. You should prefer using an installer that supports PEP 517 interface, such as pip 19.0.0 or later. That being said you might be able to still install a package via this method if you satisfy build dependencies before calling the installation command (as described under sdist).

latest unreleased¶

Installing an unreleased version is discouraged and should be only done for testing purposes. If you do so you’ll need a pip version of at least 18.0.0 and use the following command:

pip install git+https://github.com/tox-dev/tox.git@main

Python and OS Compatibility¶

tox works with the following Python interpreter implementations:

CPython versions 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13

This means tox works on the latest patch version of each of these minor versions. Previous patch versions are supported on a best effort approach.