For a new project how can I tell poetry to use a given virtual environment?

[halloleo]

For a new Python project I normally let Poetry Create a new virtual environment:

I just do poetry install and poetry creates a new virtual environment in ./.venv (I have set virtualenvs.in-project = True). All packages from the TOML file get installed in there. So far so great! :-)

However for some projects I want Poetry to use an existing venv under /path/to/pre-exesiting/env and install the packages into this venv.

To achieve this I tried poetry env use /path/to/pre-exesiting/env/bin/python, but Poetry still creates a new environment in ./.venv. :-(

[clintonroy]

Activate the environment, then poetry will use it.

So activate your environment (. .bin/activate or so) then change into the poetry project directory and poetry install.

It is documented at the top of https://python-poetry.org/docs/managing-environments/

[halloleo]

Thanks @clintonroy for chiming in!

I have tested this and the external environment is not written into Poetry's store: When I later come back to the project Poetry has forgotten about the venv and a simple poetry add package will create a new environment.

Is there a way to keep am external environment for Poetry associated with that project?

The documentation page you point to mentions under Switching between environments that I can switch venvs via poetry env use ..` but this does not work for me. :-( Maybe I misunderstand things here...