Molt

    Glossary

    Precise definitions for the terms molt uses. Where a term means something different in another release tool, this page says so.

    Bump type

    The size of a version change a changeset requests for a package: major, minor, patch, or none. major / minor / patch move the version per PEP 440 arithmetic. none is a first-class value meaning "record a changelog entry but do not move this package's version by itself."

    Changeset

    A small, human-written Markdown file recording the intent of a change: which packages it affects, the bump type for each, and a prose summary for the changelog. Changesets accumulate in .changeset/ and are consumed in a batch by molt version; see Changesets for the model and Changeset format for the grammar.

    Dependency

    A package that is depended upon -- the thing further up the graph. When acme-cli requires acme-core, acme-core is the dependency. molt reads the dependency's declared version constraint to decide whether a dependent needs a release.

    Dependent

    A package that depends on another -- the thing further down the graph. When acme-core gets a release, molt looks at its dependents to see whether any of them fall out of range and need a release too; that is the core job of the release plan. "Dependency" and "dependent" differ by two letters and are used constantly, so molt's user-facing output leans on "requires" / "required-by" where it helps.

    Ecosystem backend

    The pluggable adapter that teaches molt how a particular Python packaging tool expresses workspaces and intra-repo dependencies. uv, Poetry, Hatch, PDM, and setuptools all express these differently, so molt puts a backend protocol behind them rather than calling one of them directly. See Ecosystems.

    Fixed packages

    A configured group whose members always release together at one shared version, including members that nothing changed. Contrast with linked packages, which only align the members already releasing; the precise difference is in Linked vs fixed packages.

    Forge

    The code-hosting platform molt integrates with for release automation: pull or merge requests, release notes, and tags. GitHub is the backend molt ships, behind a host-agnostic protocol. See Forges.

    Linked packages

    A configured group whose releasing members are aligned to a shared version, while members with no reason to release are left untouched. Contrast with fixed packages, which force-release every member; see Linked vs fixed packages.

    Member

    A single package (a project with its own pyproject.toml and version) inside a workspace. molt uses "member", "project", or "package" for the unit, and reserves "workspace" for the whole repository.

    Prerelease

    A staged, non-final release on the way to a specific stable version -- 1.2.1rc0 heading toward 1.2.1. molt cuts one with the stateless flag molt version --pre {a,b,rc,dev} (PEP 440 identifiers only; there is no persistent pre.json mode), and a plain molt version lands on the stable version. See Prerelease mode.

    Release plan

    The calculated object that describes everything a set of changesets will release -- each package's name, bump type, old version, new version, and originating changesets -- including cross-package propagation and group alignment. It is a machine-readable value you can inspect with --dry-run before anything is written; see The release plan.

    Snapshot

    A disposable release built from an exact commit for testing, shaped as 0.0.0.dev<datetime> so it sorts below every real release. Because PyPI versions are permanent and it has no dist-tags, molt targets a non-PyPI index for snapshots by default. See Snapshot releases.

    updateInternalDependencies

    The config option controlling whether a released dependency's version constraint is rewritten in a dependent's manifest, keyed on how big the dependency's bump was ("patch" -- the default -- rewrites the pin on any bump; "minor" only rewrites it for minor-or-larger bumps). molt's config spells this snake_case as update_internal_dependencies. It governs the constraint, not whether a dependent is released -- that is updateInternalDependents, two letters away and a different job entirely.

    updateInternalDependents

    The config option controlling whether a dependent is itself given a release when a dependency moves ("out-of-range" -- the default -- releases a dependent only when the dependency's new version leaves its declared range; "always" releases every non-dev dependent on any non-none bump). molt's config spells this snake_case as update_internal_dependents. It governs releases, not the constraint rewrite -- that is updateInternalDependencies.

    Workspace

    The whole repository of related packages managed together -- matching uv, Cargo, and pnpm, and each package in it is a member.

    If you are coming from changesets: it uses "workspace" to mean a single package. In molt the word follows uv, Cargo, and pnpm instead: workspace = the repository, member = the package.

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