Feature Request: Publish the Python SDK to PyPI

[Chise1]

Summary

Currently, the Python SDK in the python/ directory can only be used by cloning this entire repository:

git clone https://github.com/BrainCoTech/brainco-hand-sdk.git
cd brainco-hand-sdk/python
pip3 install -r requirements.txt

It would be great to publish the Python SDK as a proper package on PyPI, so users can simply run:

pip install brainco-hand-sdk

and start developing against the Revo1/Revo2 hand without pulling the whole repo.

Background

I noticed that the underlying core library bc-stark-sdk is already published on PyPI (v2.0.3, pip install bc-stark-sdk), which is great. However, the higher-level Python layer in this repo — common_imports.py, common_init.py, common_socketcan.py, common_utils.py, logger.py, and the protocol wrappers under revo1/, revo2/, revo2_can/, revo2_canfd/, revo2_ethercat/, etc. — is only distributed as source code in the repository.

Pain Points

1. No pip install support — users must clone the entire repo (including c/, archive/, docs, etc.) just to use the Python SDK.
2. Version management — there is no versioned, installable artifact for the Python layer, making it hard to pin or upgrade the SDK in requirements.txt.
3. Offline / restricted environments — environments without access to GitHub (e.g. intranet, CI inside corporate networks) cannot easily install the SDK.
4. First-run friction — the current flow requires checking out the repo, reading the docs to find the right directory, and manually installing dependencies.

Proposed Solution

• Add proper packaging config (e.g. pyproject.toml with [build-system] and [project]) for the python/ directory — note the current pyproject.toml has packages = [] and [tool.uv] package = false, so the SDK modules are not actually bundled.
• Publish the package to PyPI, e.g. as brainco-hand-sdk (the name is currently available on PyPI).
• Have it depend on bc-stark-sdk so pip install brainco-hand-sdk pulls in everything needed.
• Optionally add a GitHub Actions workflow to build and publish automatically on tagged releases.
• Update the README install section to mention pip install brainco-hand-sdk as the recommended path, while keeping the repo-clone instructions for the examples.

Expected Outcome

pip install brainco-hand-sdk

→ SDK ready to use for Revo1/Revo2 development (RS-485, CAN, CANFD, EtherCAT), with the repo kept for examples, demos and the C++ layer.

Thanks for maintaining this SDK — it would significantly improve the developer experience for Python users!

[Yongle-Fu]

Thanks for the detailed proposal.

The supported Python SDK is currently the bc-stark-sdk package already available on PyPI:

pip install bc-stark-sdk

The python/ directory in this repository is intentionally organized as an examples and tooling project rather than a distributable SDK package. This is reflected by its project name, bc-stark-sdk-examples, and by the current packages = [] / package = false configuration.

The files mentioned in this issue are shared helpers for the repository examples, GUI, and protocol-specific demos. They currently rely on script-style imports and path manipulation and have not been defined as a stable public Python API.

Publishing them as brainco-hand-sdk would therefore require more than enabling package discovery. We would first need to:

• define the supported public API;
• move reusable modules under a proper package namespace;
• separate core, GUI, and protocol-specific optional dependencies;
• define version compatibility with bc-stark-sdk;
• establish testing and release maintenance for the new package.

For now, users should install bc-stark-sdk from PyPI and clone this repository when they need the examples or GUI applications.

The proposal is still a useful developer-experience improvement. We will keep it under consideration as a possible extraction of reusable high-level helpers, rather than publishing the current python/ directory unchanged.