error: externally-managed-environment

[habreu71]

Hello,

Trying to install on OpenBSD 7.5 with pip install shell-gpt I'm getting the error below, any help or orientation will be appreciated.

error: externally-managed-environment

× This environment is externally managed
╰─> This Python installation is managed by pkg_add(1).

    To install Python packages system-wide, use the OS packages where
    possible, for example: "pkg_add py3-somepackage".

    Otherwise, for software which is not available in packages,
    it is recommended to create a "venv" (virtual environment, see
    https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html) and install it there.
    For standalone applications, pipx (in the py3-pipx package) can
    help manage this for you.

note: If you believe this is a mistake, please contact your Python installation or OS distribution
provider. You can override this, at the risk of breaking your Python installation or OS, by passing
--break-system-packages.
hint: See PEP 668 for the detailed specification.

[will-wright-eng]

this is a python/os issue, not a shell_gpt issue

[habreu71]

Thank you for the link, great info and it helped a lot. It's installing correctly now, I just followed the instructions to create and activate the virtual environment, as the error message indicates as one of the options to fix it. I didn't try the other options since the virtual environment fixed it. OpenBSD users must replace the "source" command by a period (.) when activating the virtual environment, so "source .venv/bin/activate" will be actually ". .venv/bin/activate".

This ticket can be closed as Solved.

Thank you!

[badverybadboy]

Is there a workaround or a solution to this ? Happening on Ubuntu 24.04 as well. Python 3.12.

Activating .venv every time breaks the paradigm to have it available in the shell by default. Any suggestions I should follow ?

[lucasliet]

python encourages venv so pip install is not recommended anymore
just make sure you have pipx installed and run
pipx install shell_gpt

if you use litellm pipx install 'shell_gpt[litellm]'