pip

"Why is this working when I didn’t install anything??"
Because pip install -e didn’t copy your tools — it just told Python where to look.

🧙‍♂️ “Symbolic linking magic,” in other words.

egg-link

YES — the mysterious .egg-link file is the secret sauce of pip install -e.

You’re not imagining it. It’s a real file, and it’s what makes editable installs work.