Installation¶

From PyPI¶

pip install clifft

Python 3.12+ required

Clifft requires Python 3.12 or later.

Platform Support¶

Platform / CPU family	PyPI wheel
Linux `x86_64` with AVX2	Supported
Linux `aarch64`	Supported
macOS `arm64`	Supported
Windows `amd64`	Supported

All other platforms and CPU families should build from source. See Building from Source.

From Source¶

For development, or if pre-built wheels are not available for your platform or CPU family:

git clone https://github.com/unitaryfoundation/clifft.git
cd clifft

# Using uv (recommended)
uv venv
uv pip install -e .

# Verify
uv run python -c "import clifft; print(clifft.version())"

OpenMP is optional. Linux source builds usually find it automatically with GCC or Clang. On macOS with Apple clang, install Homebrew libomp before building if you want multi-core state vector execution:

brew install libomp
uv pip install -e .

If OpenMP is still not detected, pass the Homebrew prefix explicitly:

SKBUILD_CMAKE_ARGS="-DOpenMP_ROOT=$(brew --prefix libomp)" uv pip install -e .

First build takes 10-15 minutes

The initial build compiles Stim (a dependency) from source, which has many files. Subsequent incremental builds are fast.

Prerequisites (source build)¶

CMake 3.20+
C++ compiler with C++20 support (GCC 10+, Clang 12+, or Xcode CLT)
Python 3.12+
uv (recommended) — curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
macOS OpenMP runtime (optional, enables multi-core state vector kernels) — brew install libomp

See Building from Source for the full development setup.