Poetry is a Python build tool, dependency manager, and project orchestrator. It provides a unified workflow for managing the full lifecycle of a project, from initial environment setup to the final package release.
The system centralizes project metadata and dependency specifications in a single configuration file, replacing legacy formats. It utilizes a deterministic dependency resolver to calculate compatible package versions and records the exact state of the environment in a lock file to ensure consistency across different machines.
The tool handles the orchestration of isolated virtual environments to prevent dependency conflicts. It also functions as a build backend to generate distributable wheels and source distributions for publishing to registries.