MT005: HasKeywords

Overview

Property	Value
ID	MT005
Name	HasKeywords
Group	metadata
Severity	WARNING

Description

Checks that the [project].keywords field is defined in pyproject.toml.

Keywords improve package discoverability by:

Enabling search on PyPI
Helping users find related packages
Categorizing your package by topic

What it checks

The check verifies that pyproject.toml contains:

[project]
keywords = ["keyword1", "keyword2", "keyword3"]

How to fix

Add the keywords field to your pyproject.toml:

[project]
keywords = ["cli", "testing", "packaging", "pypi"]

Choosing good keywords

Use lowercase, single words or short phrases
Include common synonyms users might search for
Cover the domain/topic of your package
Include technology stack where relevant
Aim for 5-10 relevant keywords

Good examples:

# For a data processing library
keywords = ["data", "pandas", "csv", "etl", "pipeline", "dataframe"]

# For a web framework
keywords = ["web", "http", "api", "rest", "async", "server"]

# For a CLI tool
keywords = ["cli", "command-line", "terminal", "automation"]

Avoid:

Overly generic terms (“python”, “library”)
Unrelated popular keywords (keyword stuffing)
Duplicates of your package name
Excessive keywords (more than 15-20)

Configuration

Skip this check

[tool.pycmdcheck]
skip = ["MT005"]

CLI

pycmdcheck --skip MT005