How to set up and install Boulder Opal

Boulder Opal is a versatile Python toolset that provides everything a research team needs to automate and optimize quantum hardware performance at scale for quantum computing and quantum sensing.

In this guide, you will learn how to:

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

1. Sign up for an account

Sign up for a Q-CTRL account to get started with Boulder Opal for free.

2. Set up your environment

To get started quickly and easily, we recommend Anaconda—a free and open-source distribution of the Python and R programming languages for scientific computing. Boulder Opal requires Python 3.9 or later.

3. Install the Boulder Opal Python package

Install the Boulder Opal Python package using pip on the command line.

pip install boulder-opal

Several of the Boulder Opal user guides and application notes use the Q-CTRL Visualizer and Q-CTRL Open Controls packages. You can also install them using pip.

pip install qctrl-visualizer qctrl-open-controls

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

pip install --upgrade boulder-opal

You can similarly update qctrl-visualizer and qctrl-open-controls.

For more information on managing your Boulder Opal instance, read through our set up documentation.