diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 47d4dd78a..7ecec1f72 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -367,6 +367,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "generic-array",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "bracoxide"
+version = "0.1.4"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "fbc0bcb5424e8e1f29c21a00f2d222df5e8e9779732ff03f840315d8fbac708e"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "brownstone"
 version = "3.0.0"
@@ -4655,6 +4661,7 @@ dependencies = [
 name = "spk-workspace"
 version = "0.42.0"
 dependencies = [
+ "bracoxide",
  "format_serde_error",
  "glob",
  "itertools 0.12.0",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 1ca8b2365..3683aa754 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ description = "SPK is a Package Manager for high-velocity software environments,
 [workspace.dependencies]
 arc-swap = "1.6.0"
 async-trait = "0.1"
+bracoxide = "0.1.4"
 bytes = "1.5"
 cached = "0.48.1"
 chrono = { version = "0.4.34", features = ["serde"] }
diff --git a/crates/spk-workspace/Cargo.toml b/crates/spk-workspace/Cargo.toml
index dc3ebb7df..23c07a017 100644
--- a/crates/spk-workspace/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/spk-workspace/Cargo.toml
@@ -16,15 +16,16 @@ workspace = true
 sentry = ["spk-solve/sentry"]
 
 [dependencies]
-serde = { workspace = true, features = ["derive"] }
+bracoxide = { workspace = true }
+format_serde_error = { workspace = true }
 glob = { workspace = true }
 itertools = { workspace = true }
-spk-solve = { workspace = true }
-thiserror = { workspace = true }
 miette = { workspace = true }
+serde = { workspace = true, features = ["derive"] }
 serde_yaml = { workspace = true }
 spk-schema = { workspace = true }
-format_serde_error = { workspace = true }
+spk-solve = { workspace = true }
+thiserror = { workspace = true }
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 rstest = { workspace = true }
diff --git a/crates/spk-workspace/src/file.rs b/crates/spk-workspace/src/file.rs
index 9b14f67c7..a7d7a37b6 100644
--- a/crates/spk-workspace/src/file.rs
+++ b/crates/spk-workspace/src/file.rs
@@ -3,9 +3,13 @@
 // https://github.com/spkenv/spk
 
 use std::path::Path;
+use std::str::FromStr;
 
+use bracoxide::tokenizer::TokenizationError;
+use bracoxide::OxidizationError;
 use serde::Deserialize;
 use spk_schema::foundation::FromYaml;
+use spk_schema::version::Version;
 
 use crate::error::LoadWorkspaceFileError;
 
@@ -75,6 +79,7 @@ impl WorkspaceFile {
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, Hash, PartialEq, Eq, Ord, PartialOrd)]
 pub struct RecipesItem {
     pub path: glob::Pattern,
+    pub versions: Vec<Version>,
 }
 
 impl<'de> serde::de::Deserialize<'de> for RecipesItem {
@@ -96,7 +101,10 @@ impl<'de> serde::de::Deserialize<'de> for RecipesItem {
                 E: serde::de::Error,
             {
                 let path = glob::Pattern::new(v).map_err(serde::de::Error::custom)?;
-                Ok(RecipesItem { path })
+                Ok(RecipesItem {
+                    path,
+                    versions: Vec::new(),
+                })
             }
 
             fn visit_map<A>(self, map: A) -> Result<Self::Value, A::Error>
@@ -106,11 +114,42 @@ impl<'de> serde::de::Deserialize<'de> for RecipesItem {
                 #[derive(Deserialize)]
                 struct RawRecipeItem {
                     path: String,
+                    #[serde(default)]
+                    versions: Vec<String>,
                 }
 
                 let raw_recipe =
                     RawRecipeItem::deserialize(serde::de::value::MapAccessDeserializer::new(map))?;
-                self.visit_str(&raw_recipe.path)
+                let mut base = self.visit_str(&raw_recipe.path)?;
+                for (i, version_expr) in raw_recipe.versions.into_iter().enumerate() {
+                    let expand_result = bracoxide::bracoxidize(&version_expr);
+                    let expanded = match expand_result {
+                        Ok(expanded) => expanded,
+                        Err(OxidizationError::TokenizationError(TokenizationError::NoBraces))
+                        | Err(OxidizationError::TokenizationError(
+                            TokenizationError::EmptyContent,
+                        ))
+                        | Err(OxidizationError::TokenizationError(
+                            TokenizationError::FormatNotSupported,
+                        )) => {
+                            vec![version_expr]
+                        }
+                        Err(err) => {
+                            return Err(serde::de::Error::custom(format!(
+                                "invalid brace expansion in position {i}: {err:?}"
+                            )))
+                        }
+                    };
+                    for version in expanded {
+                        let parsed = Version::from_str(&version).map_err(|err| {
+                            serde::de::Error::custom(format!(
+                                "brace expansion in position {i} produced invalid version '{version}': {err}"
+                            ))
+                        })?;
+                        base.versions.push(parsed);
+                    }
+                }
+                Ok(base)
             }
         }
 
diff --git a/workspace.spk.yml b/workspace.spk.yml
index cc340e414..46bfe1271 100644
--- a/workspace.spk.yml
+++ b/workspace.spk.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,28 @@
 api: v0/workspace
 
 recipes:
-  - packages/**.spk.yml
+  # collect all of the recipes in the workspace
+  - packages/**/*.spk.yaml
+
+  # some recipes require additional information
+  # which can be augmented even if they were already
+  # collected above
+
+  - path: packages/python/python2.spk.yaml
+    # here, we define the specific versions that can
+    # be build from a recipe
+    versions: [2.7.18]
+
+  - path: packages/python/python3.spk.yaml
+    # we can use bash-style brace expansion to define
+    # ranges of versions that are supported
+    versions:
+      - '3.7.{0..17}'
+      - '3.8.{0..20}'
+      - '3.9.{0..21}'
+      - '3.10.{0..16}'
+      - '3.11.{0..11}'
+      - '3.12.{0..8}'
+      - '3.13.{0..1}'
+
+