Discovery: Lockfile Handling for Conda Install Wheels in Repodata #142
Description
What is the idea?
Investigate how lockfiles represent pure Python wheels hosted in conda channel repodata, ensuring reproducibility across lockfile formats (explicit, rattler_lock, conda-lock, etc).
Why is this needed?
When conda installs wheels directly from repodata, lockfiles must reference them for reproducibility. It's unclear how lockfile formats distinguish between wheels and traditional conda packages, or whether this distinction matters for reliable environment recreation.
What should happen?
Discovery needs to answer: How do lockfile formats represent wheels in repodata? Do lockfiles capture enough information to retrieve the exact wheel? Does mixing wheels and conda packages in repodata work reliably across all lockfile formats?