Getting started#

Installation#

Qiskit Machine Learning depends on Qiskit, which has its own installation instructions detailing installation options and its supported environments/platforms. You should refer to that first. Then the information here can be followed which focuses on the additional installation specific to Qiskit Machine Learning.

Qiskit Machine Learning has some functions that have been made optional where the dependent code and/or support program(s) are not (or cannot be) installed by default. Those are PyTorch and Sparse. See Optional installs for more information.

The simplest way to get started is to follow the installation guide for Qiskit here

In your virtual environment, where you installed Qiskit, install qiskit-machine-learning as follows:

pip install qiskit-machine-learning

Note

As Qiskit Machine Learning depends on Qiskit, you can though simply install it into your environment, as above, and pip will automatically install a compatible version of Qiskit if one is not already installed.

Installing Qiskit Machine Learning from source allows you to access the most recently updated version under development instead of using the version in the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository. This will give you the ability to inspect and extend the latest version of the Qiskit Machine Learning code more efficiently.

Since Qiskit Machine Learning depends on Qiskit, and its latest changes may require new or changed features of Qiskit, you should first follow Qiskit’s “Install from source” instructions here

Installing Qiskit Machine Learning from Source

Using the same development environment that you installed Qiskit in you are ready to install Qiskit Machine Learning.

  1. Clone the Qiskit Machine Learning repository.

    git clone https://github.com/qiskit-community/qiskit-machine-learning.git
    
  2. Cloning the repository creates a local folder called qiskit-machine-learning.

    cd qiskit-machine-learning
    
  3. If you want to run tests or linting checks, install the developer requirements.

    pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
    
  4. Install qiskit-machine-learning.

    pip install .
    

If you want to install it in editable mode, meaning that code changes to the project don’t require a reinstall to be applied, you can do this with:

pip install -e .

Optional installs#

  • PyTorch, may be installed either using command pip install 'qiskit-machine-learning[torch]' to install the package or refer to PyTorch getting started. When PyTorch is installed, the TorchConnector facilitates its use of quantum computed networks.

  • Sparse, may be installed using command pip install 'qiskit-machine-learning[sparse]' to install the package. Sparse being installed will enable the usage of sparse arrays/tensors.


Ready to get going?…#

Dive into the tutorials

Find out about Qiskit Machine Learning.

Qiskit Machine Learning tutorials