docs: describe how to build the python bindings

python_bindings/BUILD.md

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# Building and Releasing
+
+## Building from source
+First, create a Python `venv`, like so:
+```sh
+cd python_bindings
+python3 -m venv .env
+source .env/bin/activate
+```
+
+We use `maturin` and `pyo3` to develop, build and publish. Make sure that the `maturin` executable is available, for example by running 
+```sh
+pip install maturin
+```
+or by using the package manager of your choice, e.g. `dnf install maturin` or `apt install python3-maturin`.
+
+For developing, run
+```sh
+maturin develop
+```
+which will install the crate as a python module in the current virtual environment. You can then e.g. use it from a REPL, like so:
+```sh
+python3
+>>> import tsalign
+>>> alignment = tsalign.align("ACGT", "AGT")
+>>> alignment.cigar()
+'1M1D2M'
+>>> ...
+```
+
+## Release
+Release by simply adjusting the version in `Cargo.toml`, create and push a tag that is called `python_bindings-v<version>`. A GitHub action should™ publish to the [PyPI repository](https://pypi.org/project/tsalign/).