Key Enhancements:

Error Handling:

Handled potential FileNotFoundError for README.md and requirements.txt.
Checked for missing required metadata and raised an informative error if any are missing.
Automated Package Discovery:

Replaced packages=["lightrag"] with setuptools.find_packages() to automatically find sub-packages and exclude test or documentation directories.
Additional Metadata:

Added Development Status in classifiers to indicate a "Beta" release (modify based on the project's maturity).
Used project_urls to link documentation, source code, and an issue tracker, which are standard for open-source projects.
Compatibility:

Included include_package_data=True to include additional files specified in MANIFEST.in.
These changes enhance the readability, reliability, and openness of the code, making it more contributor-friendly and ensuring it’s ready for open-source distribution.

setup.py

@@ -1,39 +1,71 @@
 import setuptools
+from pathlib import Path
 
-with open("README.md", "r", encoding="utf-8") as fh:
+# Reading the long description from README.md
-    long_description = fh.read()
+def read_long_description():
+    try:
+        return Path("README.md").read_text(encoding="utf-8")
+    except FileNotFoundError:
+        return "A description of LightRAG is currently unavailable."
 
+# Retrieving metadata from __init__.py
+def retrieve_metadata():
+    vars2find = ["__author__", "__version__", "__url__"]
+    vars2readme = {}
+    try:
+        with open("./lightrag/__init__.py") as f:
+            for line in f.readlines():
+                for v in vars2find:
+                    if line.startswith(v):
+                        line = line.replace(" ", "").replace('"', "").replace("'", "").strip()
+                        vars2readme[v] = line.split("=")[1]
+    except FileNotFoundError:
+        raise FileNotFoundError("Metadata file './lightrag/__init__.py' not found.")
+    
+    # Checking if all required variables are found
+    missing_vars = [v for v in vars2find if v not in vars2readme]
+    if missing_vars:
+        raise ValueError(f"Missing required metadata variables in __init__.py: {missing_vars}")
+    
+    return vars2readme
 
-vars2find = ["__author__", "__version__", "__url__"]
+# Reading dependencies from requirements.txt
-vars2readme = {}
+def read_requirements():
-with open("./lightrag/__init__.py") as f:
+    deps = []
-    for line in f.readlines():
+    try:
-        for v in vars2find:
+        with open("./requirements.txt") as f:
-            if line.startswith(v):
+            deps = [line.strip() for line in f if line.strip()]
-                line = line.replace(" ", "").replace('"', "").replace("'", "").strip()
+    except FileNotFoundError:
-                vars2readme[v] = line.split("=")[1]
+        print("Warning: 'requirements.txt' not found. No dependencies will be installed.")
+    return deps
 
-deps = []
+metadata = retrieve_metadata()
-with open("./requirements.txt") as f:
+long_description = read_long_description()
-    for line in f.readlines():
+requirements = read_requirements()
-        if not line.strip():
-            continue
-        deps.append(line.strip())
 
 setuptools.setup(
     name="lightrag-hku",
-    url=vars2readme["__url__"],
+    url=metadata["__url__"],
-    version=vars2readme["__version__"],
+    version=metadata["__version__"],
-    author=vars2readme["__author__"],
+    author=metadata["__author__"],
     description="LightRAG: Simple and Fast Retrieval-Augmented Generation",
     long_description=long_description,
     long_description_content_type="text/markdown",
-    packages=["lightrag"],
+    packages=setuptools.find_packages(exclude=("tests*", "docs*")),  # Automatically find packages
     classifiers=[
+        "Development Status :: 4 - Beta",
         "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
         "License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License",
         "Operating System :: OS Independent",
+        "Intended Audience :: Developers",
+        "Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules",
     ],
     python_requires=">=3.9",
-    install_requires=deps,
+    install_requires=requirements,
+    include_package_data=True,  # Includes non-code files from MANIFEST.in
+    project_urls={  # Additional project metadata
+        "Documentation": metadata.get("__url__", ""),
+        "Source": metadata.get("__url__", ""),
+        "Tracker": f"{metadata.get('__url__', '')}/issues" if metadata.get("__url__") else ""
+    },
 )