Installation by Cloning the GitHub repository

An alternative to PyPi is to clone the code from GitHub.

Here is an example for Linux. We assume that Python 3 is installed, and consequently ‘pip3’ is also installed. In a console, type:

git clone https://github.com/crillab/pyxai.git

You may need to update the environment variable ‘PYTHONPATH’, by typing for example:

export PYTHONPATH="${PYTHONPATH}:${PWD}/.."

Get the latest version of pip:

python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip

Installing

Run the following command inside the cloned pyxai directory. It compiles the C++ extension and installs all dependencies:

python3 -m pip install -e .

With setuptools ≤ 58.2.0 (pre-2021 toolchains), pip install -e . may not compile the C extension correctly. Upgrade setuptools first: python3 -m pip install --upgrade setuptools.

If you are using a virtual environment, the compiled C extension must be copied manually into it (replace 3.x with your Python version and adjust the architecture suffix accordingly):

cp build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.x/c_explainer.cpython-3x-x86_64-linux-gnu.so env/lib/python3.x/site-packages/.

PyXAI’s graphical interface

Since V1.0.10, PyXAI’s graphical interface is independent and no longer required, to resolve compatibility issues with PyQt6. You can still use pictorial explanations without the graphical interface — more information is available on the Visualization page.

python3 -m pip install pyqt6

To use PyXAI’s graphical interface, you may need to install:

sudo apt install ffmpeg libsm6 libxext6 qt6-base-dev libxcb-cursor0 -y

Verifying the installation

python3 -c "import pyxai; print(pyxai.__version__)"

You can also run an example:

python3 examples/DT/BuilderOrchids.py