Strange Python dependencies required in WORKSPACE file for running C++ XLA code

[joaospinto]

I was trying to do some C++-only workflows with XLA (HLO -> AOT-compiled code, execute AOT-compiled code, etc), and was surprised that I had to add a bunch of Python-related things to my WORKSPACE file.

This is a minimal example of what I had to add for things to work: https://github.com/joaospinto/call_jax_from_cpp/blob/main/WORKSPACE

Is this expected? Could it be that there are some undesirable transitive dependencies on Python targets in your Bazel dependency tree? It seems a bit suspicious.