Qiskit C API (qiskit.h)
The Qiskit C API is a low level interface to the core data model of Qiskit. It is designed to provide a high performance interface to Qiskit for compiled languages and provides a defined ABI to the internal Rust data model that is used to create the Python API. There are two expected modes of operation for the C API:
- A standalone shared library for creating and working with Qiskit objects from compiled languages without a runtime dependency on Python, and
- For building Python extensions that are using Qiskit but interface directly with the Rust objects from the extension code without using Python for better performance.
To get started, see Install the Qiskit C API. To combine the C API with custom Python extensions, see Extend Qiskit in Python with C.
As this interface is still new in Qiskit it should be considered experimental and the interface might change between minor version releases.
Quantum Circuit
Quantum information
Transpiler
Using the transpiler from the C API is intended to only cover circuits created solely via the C API. If you are in a hybrid mode where you’re using the C API with Python you should invoke the transpiler via the Python qiskit.transpiler module instead; the functionality is the same Rust internals they just offer different entrypoints. The C API for transpilation makes assumptions about the input only using constructs exposed to the C Quantum Circuit API and you will potentially get incomplete results transpiling circuits from Python via the C API.
- QkTranspiler
- QkTarget
- QkTargetEntry
- QkTranspileLayout
- Transpiler Passes
- QkVF2LayoutResult
- QkSabreLayoutOptions