# ERROR: Could not build wheels for cryptography, which is required to install pyproject.toml-based projects

- **ID:** `python/error-could-not-build-wheels-for-package`
- **Domain:** python
- **Category:** install_error
- **Verification:** ai_generated
- **Fix Rate:** 80%

## Root Cause

A dependency must be compiled from source because no matching wheel exists for the current platform/Python ABI. This happens when the interpreter is newer than the package's wheel matrix, or on musl/Alpine where manylinux wheels are incompatible.

## Version Compatibility

| Version | Status | Introduced | Deprecated |
|---------|--------|------------|------------|
| 3.9 | active | — | — |
| 3.10 | active | — | — |
| 3.11 | active | — | — |
| 3.12 | active | — | — |
| 3.13 | active | — | — |

## Workarounds

1. **** (80% success)
   ```
   curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
sudo apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev libffi-dev python3-dev
pip install cryptography
   ```
2. **** (90% success)
   ```
   FROM python:3.11-slim
RUN pip install cryptography
   ```
3. **** (70% success)
   ```
   pip install 'cryptography<42'
   ```

## Dead Ends

- **** — Upgrading tools does not produce a wheel for an unsupported ABI; build still fails. (55% fail)
- **** — Cache is not the issue; the wheel simply does not exist for this platform. (80% fail)
- **** — Force reinstall re-triggers the same source build path. (85% fail)