Python Version Recommendation for CLI Tools

Python Version Recommendation for CLI Tools | Generated by AI

Home 2026.05

Question: When did Python 3.11, 3.12, and 3.13 release? Given it’s now 2026 and for a CLI toolkit like ww, what minimum Python version should I specify?

Answer:

Release Timeline

Version	Initial Release	EOL
3.11.0	Oct 24, 2022	~Oct 2027
3.12.0	Oct 2, 2023	~Oct 2028
3.13.0	Oct 7, 2024	~Oct 2029
3.14.0	2025 (alpha → stable Oct 2025)	~Oct 2030

Notable: 3.12 is now in “security fixes only” stage — it no longer accepts regular bugfixes and binary installers are no longer provided. 3.13 is now the current stable feature release series, and 3.14 is the latest feature release series.

What to Set for `ww`

Your pyproject.toml currently says python >= 3.8. That’s too conservative for 2026. Here’s the reasoning:

Bump to >=3.11 minimum. Here’s why:

What you gain from 3.11+:

~25% faster CPython (specializing adaptive interpreter) — matters for CLI startup time
tomllib in stdlib (useful for config parsing)
ExceptionGroup / except* — cleaner error handling in async code
Much better tracebacks with precise error locations

What you gain from 3.12+:

f-string improvements (nested expressions, multiline)
@override decorator in typing
Per-interpreter GIL (groundwork for real threading)
But: it’s now security-only, so you’d be pinning to a version no longer getting bugfixes

What you gain from 3.13+:

New interactive REPL (colorized, multi-line)
Experimental free-threaded mode (no GIL)
Experimental JIT
Active bugfix releases through ~2027

Recommendation: python >= 3.11

Rationale for ww specifically:

It’s a personal CLI toolkit, not a library others depend on — you control the runtime
You’re on macOS M2 (ships Python 3.12+ via Homebrew by default) and Ubuntu (easy to install 3.11+)
3.11 EOL is Oct 2027 — still 18 months out, plenty of runway
Setting >=3.12 is also fine and slightly better future-facing, but 3.11 maximizes compatibility if you ever share it without asking people to upgrade
>=3.13 is aggressive for a CLI tool — libraries like Pillow, faiss-cpu, some whisper bindings still have occasional lag on new versions

If you want to be forward-leaning: >=3.12 is the sweet spot right now — still getting bugfixes until Oct 2028, widely available, and drops the dead weight of 3.8–3.10 syntax limitations.

In pyproject.toml:

[project]
requires-python = ">=3.12"

And in your GitHub Actions CI, test against ["3.12", "3.13"] — skip 3.14 until it stabilizes in Oct 2025 final release.

Bottom line: Drop >=3.8 — it’s a 2019 version, EOL Oct 2024. Set >=3.11 minimum, >=3.12 preferred. You’re not shipping a library with broad compatibility constraints, you’re shipping your own tool on machines you control.

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