Fix Python Module Import Paths

Fix Python Module Import Paths | Generated by AI

Home 2025.08

The short answer: you need sys here so you can modify the Python module search path (sys.path) before doing the from scripts.create.delete import delete_md.

Why `sys` is needed

Python looks for modules/packages to import in a list of directories stored in sys.path.
By default, it contains:
- The current script’s directory.
- Standard library directories.
- Installed site-packages.
If your scripts/create/delete.py file isn’t in one of those default places, the import will fail with ModuleNotFoundError.

So the code does:

sys.path.append(
    os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))))
)

That means:

Take the current file’s absolute path (__file__).
Go three directories up.
Add that directory to sys.path.

After that, Python can resolve scripts.create.delete as if it were installed or in the project root.

Without `sys`

If your project is laid out like:

project/
├── scripts/
│   └── create/
│       └── delete.py
└── tools/
    └── myscript.py   <-- you're running this one

and you run myscript.py directly, Python won’t automatically know that project/ is the root. The import fails unless you either:

Run it with PYTHONPATH=... (e.g., PYTHONPATH=.. python myscript.py), or
Package the project and install it (pip install -e .), or
Dynamically add the path in code with sys.path.append(...) (as done here).

👉 So sys is needed purely to manipulate the import path at runtime, letting you import modules relative to your project root.

Do you want me to also show you some cleaner alternatives to avoid messing with sys.path manually?

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