I was looking around Conda's documentation and I found this: https://docs.conda.io/projects/conda-build/en/latest/resources/commands/conda-develop.html?highlight=develop
It explains how to install a package in development mode but it doesn't seem to explain what that actually means and how it differs from a normal install.
First, note that that documentation is for conda-build and not conda (which has separate documentation). The former is for developing Conda-deliverable packages; the latter is for managing virtual environments.
Apparently, conda develop will build a package in place and only install it through a link placed in site-packages (specifically adding the path to the package into the site-packages/conda.pth file), rather than directly installing into site-packages. Sounds like it would make it easier to rebuild while you develop the package without having to reinstall every time.
Here's the relevant blurb I found in the code base:
develop mode builds the extensions in place and makes a link to package in site-packages/.
