Install a learning environment¶
For the hosted IDE, use Create an IDE environment instead of installing locally. For a notebook on your own computer, see Local Jupyter.
Use Python 3.11 for these lessons. The SDK declares Python 3.9–3.13 support; the course checks use Python 3.11 with the documentation dependency lock. Start in an empty working directory so the clone does not conflict with an existing checkout.
Python 3.11 installation, four introductory examples and both first-lesson reports have passed automated checks on macOS, Ubuntu and Windows. The check records retain the dependency versions used on each system. Start with this tested Python version for the courses.
The command block on the learning site checks out the same commit as the page. If you are reading the Markdown source on GitHub, clone the repository and select that source revision before installing it.
Cloning the repository and opening its source links or check records require repository access. If GitHub shows “Repository not found” or asks you to sign in, confirm that your account has access with the course maintainer before continuing.
git clone https://github.com/CASColdAtom/CASCAQit.git
cd CASCAQit
git checkout 8b227bff1cbfcd7af44525a6f33137f906f6ecc5
Create a virtual environment¶
On macOS or Linux:
python3.11 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -e .
On Windows PowerShell:
py -3.11 -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install -e .
Use .venv\Scripts\python.exe in place of python in the remaining Windows commands; activation is optional. Installation includes NumPy, SciPy and Bokeh. You do not need the development tools or a separate visualization package to follow a lesson.
Confirm the environment¶
python -c "import sys, cascaqit; print(sys.executable); print(cascaqit.__version__)"
python examples/learning/digital_first_run.py
python examples/learning/analog_first_run.py
The interpreter path should point into your virtual environment. The SDK version should match the checkout's pyproject.toml; packaging tools may normalize 1.0.8a to 1.0.8a0. Both scripts should exit successfully. hardware_execution: False and cloud_execution: False describe local execution and do not indicate a failed installation.
If Python cannot find cascaqit, check the interpreter path and use python -m pip, so installation and execution use the same interpreter. If it cannot find the example file, check that the terminal is in the repository root. See troubleshooting for other errors.
Before continuing, close this terminal, open another, and run the version check again using the environment's interpreter. This checks that you can return to the same environment rather than relying on an accidental global install.
Continue with your first experiment. To work on the SDK itself, install .[dev] and follow the contribution guide.