Assuming a project dir structure like

project_root_directory ├── pyproject.toml └── src └── mypkg ├── __init__.py ├── data1.rst ├── data2.rst ├── data1.txt └── data2.txt 

simply add the following to your pyproject.toml

[tool.setuptools.packages.find] where = ["src"] [tool.setuptools.package-data] mypkg = ["*.txt", "*.rst"] 

More info can be found in the docs @ https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/userguide/datafiles.html

if I understand your concern, you are using setuptools as a building and distributing system and you want to move some configs from setup.[py,cfg] namely package_data to pyproject.toml, if so you have to use an other tool to build and distribute your package e.g poetry as stated in @Romibuzi's answer because it's not possible unless the setuptools' team plan a new major release to include a full support of pyproject.toml and then no need for extra/standalone config setup.cfg file.

some references:

• https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/userguide/quickstart.html#basic-use
• https://discuss.python.org/t/where-to-get-started-with-pyproject-toml/4906/4

Update

as per v61.0.0, setuptools brings a partial support (still in beta version) for this feature.

refer to @LudvigH's answer. (thank you btw)

As of now, if you are using pyproject.toml and setuptool you do not need to do anything. Just add some extra files in the same directory as your Python code.

But note that it will only add them if they are checked into source control, and you are using setuptools-scm (the example tells you to so you probably are).

For example this is my pyproject.toml

[build-system] requires = ["setuptools", "setuptools-scm"] build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta" [project] name = "foo" authors = [ {name = "...", email = "..."}, ] description = "..." readme = "README.md" requires-python = ">=3.9" dependencies = [ "pydantic", "jinja2" ] version = "1.0.1" [project.scripts] foo = "foo:main" 

And I have these files:

. ├── pyproject.toml ├── pyrightconfig.json ├── README.md ├── setup.py └── src └── foo ├── command.py ├── index.html ├── __init__.py ├── render.py └── triage.py 

And when I run python3 -m build it does add index.html to the wheels.

Also setup.py is just for backwards compatibility. You don't actually need it.

In addition to the other existing answers, one can also simply use a MANIFEST.in file.

See https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/using-manifest-in/

If you're using Hatchling, per the docs, you can also do this via:

[tool.hatch.build] include = [ "myModule/**/*.csv", "**/*.py", ] exclude = [ "tests/**", ] 

One of the things I like is to be able to make a change and then double-check it before(!) I commit it.

For this issue, one thing you can do is open the src/mymod.egg-info directory. In it, there is a SOURCES.txt file and in that file your data files should show up:

 LICENSE.txt MANIFEST.in README.md pyproject.toml setup.cfg src/mymod/__init__.py src/mymod/some_cool_script1.py src/mymod/some_data.json <=== a data file! src/mymod/some_script2.py <etc.> 

So do this:

• modify pyproject.toml to get the data you want.
• DO NOT change the version!
• run your process to build the egg. I use do_publish_setup.py:

import setuptools setuptools.setup() 

run it

python do_publish_setup.py -q sdist 

• run twine to check it:

twine check dist/* 

• if there's no issues, then the egg-info should have been created and you can double-check the SOURCES.txt file for everything you expect.

This process would be very nice to put into the setuptools doc... somewhere.

PS Here's the relevant pyproject.toml content:

[tool.setuptools.packages.find] where = ['src'] exclude = ['.gitignore'] [tool.setuptools] include-package-data = true <== not sure if this is 100% needed [tool.setuptools.package-data] mymod=['*.json'] <== not sure if mymod should use quotes