# Pypi Claim

> Claim a PyPI package name by checking availability and publishing a placeholder. Use when the user says "pypi claim", "reserve pypi name", or wants to check if a PyPI package name is available. Takes a package name as an argument.

- Skill: `srobinson/pypi-claim` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 4 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add srobinson/pypi-claim`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/srobinson/pypi-claim/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: srobinson (https://skillmd.com/u/srobinson)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/srobinson/pypi-claim

---


# pypi-claim

The package name is: `$ARGUMENTS`

The template directory is: `$SKILL_DIR/contents/`

## Steps

### 1. Validate

If `$ARGUMENTS` is empty or whitespace, tell the user to provide a name and stop.

### 2. Check PyPI availability

Run:

```bash
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" "https://pypi.org/pypi/$ARGUMENTS/json"
```

- If output is `200`: the package **already exists**. Fetch metadata and report the owner before stopping:

  ```bash
  curl -s "https://pypi.org/pypi/$ARGUMENTS/json" | python3 -c "import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin)['info']; print(d.get('author') or d.get('maintainer') or 'unknown')"
  ```

  Print: `$ARGUMENTS already exists on PyPI. Owner: <author or maintainer>`. If the owner matches the user (e.g. `srobinson` or matching email), flag it as the user's existing claim ("that's you").

- If output is `404`: the name is **available**. Continue.
- Any other code: report the status and stop.

### 3. Scaffold

Set these substitution values:
- `{{NAME}}` = the package name (`$ARGUMENTS`)
- `{{TITLE}}` = title case version (e.g. `agent-matters` becomes `Agent Matters`)
- `{{MODULE}}` = `$ARGUMENTS` with hyphens replaced by underscores (Python module name)

Then run these bash commands:

```bash
mkdir -p ~/.name-claim/$ARGUMENTS
sed 's/{{NAME}}/$ARGUMENTS/g; s/{{TITLE}}/$ARGUMENTS_TITLE_CASE/g; s/{{MODULE}}/$MODULE/g' $SKILL_DIR/contents/pyproject.toml > ~/.name-claim/$ARGUMENTS/pyproject.toml
sed 's/{{NAME}}/$ARGUMENTS/g' $SKILL_DIR/contents/placeholder.py > ~/.name-claim/$ARGUMENTS/$MODULE.py
sed 's/{{NAME}}/$ARGUMENTS/g' $SKILL_DIR/contents/publish.sh > ~/.name-claim/$ARGUMENTS/publish.sh
chmod +x ~/.name-claim/$ARGUMENTS/publish.sh
```

Replace `$ARGUMENTS`, `$ARGUMENTS_TITLE_CASE`, and `$MODULE` with the actual values in the sed commands.

Why `~/.name-claim/` and not `/tmp/`: the path is shared with sister skills `npm-claim`, `crate-claim`, and the multi-registry orchestrator `name-claim`. `/tmp/` would survive a single publish but get reaped between sessions; `~/.name-claim/` persists for retries.

### 4. Print next steps

Output the following exactly as shown, substituting the actual package name. Do NOT wrap in a code block or add any formatting.

$ARGUMENTS is available!

~/.name-claim/$ARGUMENTS/publish.sh

Note: publishing requires a PyPI API token configured in `~/.pypirc` or the `TWINE_PASSWORD` env var.