What's next for `-r pylock.toml` ?

Pip 26.1 can use a pylock.toml file or URL as a requirements source.

It simply [^1] feeds them as input to the resolver as requirements like other current sources (CLI arguments, -r requirements.txt). The only difference is that sdist and wheel from pylock.toml are pre-constrained to the artifact defined in the lock file.

This has benefits. For instance it naturally enable pip wheel and pip download to work with lock files.

This also has limitations. For instance the current UI does not allow selecting extras and dependency groups from the lock file.

So what's next for this feature? Do we keep it? If yes, what's the path to removing its experimental status? If not what's the alternative (pip sync #13737, or something else)?

[^1]: see also https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/13952#issuecomment-4323209351 below