Getting started¶

Installation¶

Qiskit Optimization depends on the main Qiskit package which has its own Qiskit Getting Started detailing the installation options for Qiskit 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 Optimization.

Qiskit Optimization 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 IBM CPLEX, CVXPY and Matplotlib. See Optional installs for more information.

Start locally

The simplest way to get started is to follow the getting started ‘Start locally’ guide for Qiskit

In your virtual environment where you installed Qiskit simply add optimization to the extra list in a similar manner to how the extra visualization support is installed for Qiskit, i.e:

pip install qiskit[optimization]

It is worth pointing out that if you’re a zsh user (which is the default shell on newer versions of macOS), you’ll need to put qiskit[optimization] in quotes:

pip install 'qiskit[optimization]'

Install from source

Installing Qiskit Optimization 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 Optimization code more efficiently.

Since Qiskit Optimization 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 Qiskit Getting Started

Installing Qiskit Optimization from Source

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

Clone the Qiskit Optimization repository.

git clone https://github.com/Qiskit/qiskit-optimization.git

Cloning the repository creates a local folder called qiskit-optimization.
```
cd qiskit-optimization
```
If you want to run tests or linting checks, install the developer requirements.
```
pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
```
Install qiskit-optimization.
```
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¶

IBM CPLEX may be installed using pip install 'qiskit-optimization[cplex]' to enable the reading of LP files and the usage of the CplexOptimizer, wrapper for cplex.Cplex. Currently there is no python 3.9 version of CPLEX. In this case, the CPLEX install command will have no effect.
CVXPY may be installed using the command pip install 'qiskit-optimization[cvx]'. CVXPY being installed will enable the usage of the Goemans-Williamson algorithm as an optimizer GoemansWilliamsonOptimizer.
Matplotlib may be installed using the command pip install 'qiskit-optimization[matplotlib]'. Matplotlib being installed will enable the usage of the draw method in the graph optimization application classes.
Gurobipy may be installed using the command pip install 'qiskit-optimization[gurobi]'. Gurobipy being installed will enable the usage of the GurobiOptimizer.

Ready to get going?…¶

Dive into the tutorials

Find out about Qiskit Optimization.

Qiskit Optimization tutorials