How to set up your environment and install Fire Opal

Fire Opal delivers effective error suppression technology for quantum computers as a simple, fully-automated solution suitable for any user.

In this guide, you will learn how to:

1. Set up an environment for use with Fire Opal.
2. Install the Fire Opal Python package.
3. Set up accounts with Q-CTRL and IBM Quantum for use with Fire Opal.

1. Set up your local development environment

To get started quickly and easily with Fire Opal and other Python packages, it's recommended to use Anaconda—a free and open-source distribution of the Python and R programming languages for scientific computing that aims to simplify package management and deployment.

Once you have Anaconda downloaded, use it to create and activate a virtual environment with a valid Python version. Fire Opal is compatible with Python versions >=3.8 and <3.12. You can either use Anaconda from the command line or through their visual Anaconda Navigator. If using command line, run the following commands:

conda create --name your_env_name python=3.9
conda activate your_env_name

Alternatively, you can use a web-based development platform, such as Google Colab or qBraid Lab. If using a web-based IDE, you will have to authenticate using an API key in Step 3.

2. Install the Fire Opal Python package

If using a command line interface, install the Fire Opal Python package by running the following command within the virtual environment created in step 1.

pip install fire-opal

If you already have the fire-opal package installed and wish to update to the latest version, use the upgrade flag in pip.

pip install --upgrade fire-opal

3. Set up Q-CTRL account

To use Fire Opal, you'll need a Q-CTRL account. Once you have your account, you can either authenticate to Fire Opal via browser when executing a function for the first time, or you can authenticate using an API key.

Note: When using a browser-based development platform, you must authenticate using an API key.

import fireopal

api_key = "YOUR_QCTRL_API_KEY"
fireopal.authenticate_qctrl_account(api_key=api_key)

If you are a member of multiple organizations, you must specify your organization_slug, which is the unique ID used to identify this the organization with access to Fire Opal. You can check organization names and other details by visiting your Q-CTRL account.

fireopal.config.configure_organization(organization_slug="organization_slug")

4. Set up hardware provider account

Fire Opal supports submission of circuits to IBM Quantum devices. Visit IBM Quantum to sign up for an account. Once you have an account, you can provide your credentials to Fire Opal through a dictionary in the format below:

# Enter your IBM token here.
ibm_token = "your_IBMQ_token"

# These are the properties for the publicly available provider for IBM backends.
# If you have access to a private provider and wish to use it, replace these values.
hub = "ibm-q"
group = "open"
project = "main"

# Launch browser-based authentication page if running the notebook locally
ibm_credentials = fireopal.credentials.make_credentials_for_ibmq(
    token=ibm_token, hub=hub, group=group, project=project
)

4. Run a circuit with Fire Opal

Now you are ready to run your first circuit. For a full tutorial on running an algorithm, follow the get started guide

# Run a circuit using the execute function after assigning values to the paramters
real_hardware_results = fireopal.execute(
    circuits, shot_count, credentials, backend_name
)

The package versions below were used to produce this notebook.

from fireopal import print_package_versions

print_package_versions()

| Package   | Version |
| --------- | ------- |
| Python    | 3.11.3  |
| networkx  | 2.8.8   |
| numpy     | 1.23.5  |
| sympy     | 1.12    |
| fire-opal | 5.3.1   |