The uv build back end is now stable

Total distribution packager win!

Will it support the wide range of options setuptools does? Or maybe a build.rs equivalent - build.py, but in a sane way unlike setup.py.

I think hatchling or setuptools are still better options (for now). Would be great to see a clean, declarative hook system in the future

Astral's focus has been to support the simplest use case, pure Python project with a standard layout. Their aim has been that most users, and especially beginners, should be able to use it with zero configuration.

As such they do not currently support C extensions, nor running arbitrary code during the build process. I imagine they will add features slowly over time, but with the continued philosophy of the simple and common cases should be zero configuration.

For Python experts who don't have special needs from a build backend I would recommend flit_core, simplest and most stable build backend, or hatching, very stable and with lots of features. While uv_build is great, it does mean that users building (but not installing) your project need to be able to run native code, rather than pure Python. But this is a pretty small edge case that for most people it won't be an issue.