Getting Started

Install quantum-robot

quantum-robot supports Python 3.11 through 3.14. Creating a virtual environment keeps its dependencies separate from system Python:

python3.14 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
python -m pip install --upgrade quantum-robot

On Windows PowerShell, activate the environment with .venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1 instead.

Optional functionality is provided by extras in the same distribution:

python -m pip install --upgrade "quantum-robot[model-visualization]"
python -m pip install --upgrade "quantum-robot[qunits]"
python -m pip install --upgrade "quantum-robot[visualization]"
python -m pip install --upgrade "quantum-robot[simulator]"
python -m pip install --upgrade "quantum-robot[dashboard]"

The extension imports are qrobot_qunits, qrobot_visualization, qrobot_simulator, and qrobot_dashboard. The model-visualization extra adds the plotting dependencies used by model methods. Extras install only the dependencies for that capability; all import packages ship in the same distribution. Multiple extras can be installed together, for example:

python -m pip install --upgrade "quantum-robot[qunits,simulator]"

Check the core installation before continuing:

python -c "import qrobot; from qrobot.backends import QiskitBackend; print('quantum-robot is ready')"

For development from a checkout, Poetry creates and manages the environment:

git clone https://github.com/Davidelanz/quantum-robot.git
cd quantum-robot
poetry env use 3.14
poetry install --all-extras

This installs every application and development extra declared in pyproject.toml, including test, documentation, and lint tooling. Verify the checkout with:

poetry check
poetry run pytest -m "not redis"

Redis database

The optional qunits extra, which exposes qrobot_qunits, requires Redis, an in-memory data store used for communication between independently timed units.

Check the How fast is Redis? benchmark page for further information

• To install Redis, check redis.io/docs/getting-started/installation/

• The redis-py Python package is installed by the qunits, simulator, and dashboard extras.

Note

On Linux, start a locally installed Redis server with service redis-server start.

It is also possible to use Docker to start Redis without installing it on the local machine:

docker run --rm --name qrobot-redis -p 6379:6379 -d redis:7-alpine

Stop it with:

docker stop qrobot-redis
docker rm qrobot-redis

To check whether Redis is reachable, run:

python -c "from qrobot_qunits.redis.utils import redis_status; print(redis_status())"

With Redis running, try one of the packaged simulations from a repository checkout:

poetry run python examples/grasping_robot.py
poetry run python examples/bug_world.py