Python classic buildpack no longer installs SQLite headers and CLI

Change effective on 06 August 2025

The classic Python buildpack, used by Cedar-generation Python apps, no longer installs the SQLite headers and SQLite CLI Ubuntu packages since most apps don’t require them.

This doesn’t affect apps that use the sqlite3 module from Python’s standard library. It also doesn’t affect apps using Python 3.13 or the package managers Poetry or uv, since for those configurations the buildpack has never installed the SQLite headers or CLI.

If your Cedar-generation app requires these SQLite Ubuntu packages, you must now install them using the APT classic buildpack.

To install the SQLite headers, add the packages libsqlite3-dev and libsqlite3-0 to your Aptfile. To install the SQLite CLI add sqlite3 to your Aptfile.

Heroku’s buildpacks are open source. To subscribe to Python buildpack release notifications or provide feedback, see these repositories on GitHub: