PEP 541 Request: libclang

[nightlark]

Project to be claimed

libclang: https://pypi.org/project/libclang

Your PyPI username

Should be transferred to either:
boomanaiden154: https://pypi.org/user/boomanaiden154
tstellar: https://pypi.org/user/tstellar

(For moving to LLVM org on PyPI)

Reasons for the request

The last release on PyPI was about 1 year 8 months for libclang version 18.1.1, the latest version from LLVM is 21.1.5 -- last February a commit was merged in the GitHub repository (sighingnow/libclang@4fb1d60) that bumped the version to 19.1.3, but CI jobs failed and no release was made.

Early last year (January/February) I opened PRs upstream for fixing the broken build (sighingnow/libclang#79) and modernizing the CI workflow to be easier to release future updates (sighingnow/libclang#78).

I reached out to @sighingnow via GitHub issues and email a few times around March and got a response saying he could add me as a co-maintainer on June 28, and I responded with my GitHub username on June 29; no response since then, my last email to follow up was sent on October 27.

I'm currently working on getting the clang PyPI package (bindings only - no compiled lib) set up so it can live in the upstream LLVM project (llvm/llvm-project#125806), and afterwards plan on trying to get the libclang PyPI package with compiled bindings transitioned into the LLVM org.

Maintenance or replacement?

Maintenance

Source code repositories URLs

Current project: https://github.com/sighingnow/libclang
Replacement: https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project

(LLVM monorepo will have code based on refactored build system in https://github.com/nightlark/libclang/tree/migrate-to-cibuildwheel)

Contact and additional research

I've reached out to @sighingnow via email about helping with maintenance on:

• January 31, 2025
• February 10, 2025 (short reminder shortly after seeing another PR that had broken CI builds get merged, with a heads about the PR I had open that fixes the CI builds)
• February 17, 2025
• March 5, 2025
• March 31, 2025

I got an email response on June 28, 2025 saying he could add me as a co-maintainer, and replied on June 29, 2025. No response since then, so I sent a follow-up email on October 27, 2025.

There have also been several pings on various GitHub issues and PRs in https://github.com/sighingnow/libclang throughout this timespan, but no responses.

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow the PSF Code of Conduct

[LecrisUT]

For something like this it would be better if there was a group established with more stakeholders responsible. I am not involved in the LLVM community to know if they have anyone who could participate in it, but maybe there are people in pypa that would be interested in the proper maintenance at least.

[nightlark]

My hope is to get it merged into LLVM, similar to the clang package - though as you've probably noticed, it seems like finding LLVM reviewers who are knowledgeable enough about Python is a challenge.

[nightlark]

Perhaps it could live over in scikit-build if PyPA doesn't want to own the repo. The problem with both packages is that they currently have a single maintainer that for whatever life reasons aren't updating the packages for new LLVM releases.

[JhnW]

Here's the maintainer of a libclang-based package (Devana, currently around 4k downloads per month, previously a few hundred), where I apply high-level abstraction to libclang.
Libclang's stuckness on old versions of clang is also a problem for me. I even considered forking it myself or having one of my contributors do it. We still don't have the time, though.
In any case, it's a problem that needs to be solved somehow.

[nightlark]

I sent another email to @sighingnow following up about him adding me as a collaborator/maintainer. Best case, he responds and is able to send the invites to the GitHub repo and PyPI package. Second best would be a reply here giving the okay for transferring maintenance of the PyPI package.

If we determine a group that can take over maintainership, great -- I can update this request to point to those accounts. Based on how quickly other PEP 541 requests get processed it will likely take at least a year for reachability to be determined and any transfer to occur, so the way I see it we might as well get the process started early.

[nightlark]

Alright, the LLVM project will take ownership of the libclang package on PyPI: https://discourse.llvm.org/t/moving-projects-into-the-llvm-org-on-pypi/88868/2

cc: @tstellar @boomanaiden154

[sighingnow]

Hi @nightlark sorry for missing some message. As replied in the email, I have added @tstellar and @boomanaiden154 as the owner of the pypi package.

[boomanaiden154]

Transferred to the LLVM organization. Thanks for the response!

[nightlark]

@Thespi-Brain closing this request since its been resolved.