uv and Ray: Revolutionizing Dependency Management for Distributed Python

This article showcases the integration of the uv package manager with the Ray compute engine, addressing the challenges of dependency management in distributed Python applications. Traditional containerization methods slow down iteration speeds. The uv + Ray combination allows for rapid creation and synchronization of consistent Python environments across a cluster, dramatically improving development efficiency. By setting the environment variable `RAY_RUNTIME_ENV_HOOK`, Ray automatically detects the uv environment and applies it to all worker processes, ensuring consistent code execution. The article demonstrates its ease of use with examples using Ray Data and LLM integration, and covers advanced usage and best practices.