Problem

vLLM's build system currently constrains setuptools to <80.0.0:

setuptools>=77.0.3,<80.0.0

This creates dependency conflicts with packages that require setuptools 80+, making them impossible to install alongside vLLM.

Example error:

vllm>=0.9.0 depends on setuptools>=77.0.3,<80
[package] depends on setuptools>=80.9.0
These requirements are mutually exclusive.

Context

• Setuptools 80.x has been stable since early 2025 (current: 80.9.0)
• The <80 upper bound appears to have been set as a conservative limit at the time, not due to a specific incompatibility
• As more packages adopt setuptools 80+ as a minimum requirement, this constraint will cause increasing compatibility issues
• vLLM's build system uses modern packaging standards (PEP 517/518) which are fully compatible with setuptools 80+

Proposed Solution

Remove the upper bound:

setuptools>=77.0.3

This maintains the tested minimum version while allowing compatibility with current and future setuptools releases.