Overview

D-Wave’s Leap™ integrated development environment (IDE) is the fastest way to get started writing your quantum application or learning to use D-Wave’s Python-based Ocean software development kit (SDK). The Leap IDE is robust and powerful; it is a customization of the cloud-based developer environment Gitpod.1 Furthermore, the Leap IDE is an excellent tool to use for short-term development tasks such as implementing a single feature in a repository and reviewing a pull request.

For longer-term projects, install and use D-Wave’s Ocean software on your computer. For information, see the Ocean SDK documentation.

You use the Leap IDE to formulate your problems in Python programs and run them to submit your problems to D-Wave™ quantum computers, including hybrid solvers, which use a combination of classical and quantum resources and can accept extremely large problems.

Get started quickly by submitting an example problem as described in Running Your First Example Problem.

1

Gitpod is an open-source Kubernetes application that is powered by VS Code and provides prebuilt development environments in a browser.

For help with Gitpod features, see Gitpod Help.

For help with VS Code features, see the VS Code documentation.

Leap IDE Workspaces

A typical IDE workspace is a single project comprised of folders, files, settings and their states that are persisted from one user session to another. In those respects, a Leap IDE workspace is like a typical IDE workspace; for example, a VS Code workspace. However, one significant difference is that a Leap IDE workspace is configured for a single GitHub repository (that is, the project). In addition, a Leap IDE workspace comes preinstalled with Python, Ocean, typical libraries such as Matplotlib, and D-Wave extensions.

Note

This guide does not describe how to formulate your problems. For information, see the D-Wave System Documentation and the Ocean SDK documentation.

Workspace Components

The following figure shows the following workspace components:

  • Quick links

    Navigation flyout menu that includes quick links to D-Wave resources.

  • Problem inspector

    Integrated D-Wave problem inspector, which provides a graphical interface for examining a D-Wave quantum computer’s problem results.

  • Workspace terminal

    The terminal is mainly used for running commands, including running the file to submit your problem.

Tip

To access the Leap IDE command palette, press F1 or click the icon Leap IDE command palette icon in the bottom left corner of the status bar.

Leap IDE.

Fig. 122 Leap IDE.

Best Practices

This section describes best practices for working with the Leap IDE.

Workflow for Getting Started with the Leap IDE

The easiest way to get started is with a D-Wave example as follows:

  1. Open a workspace with a D-Wave example as described in Running Your First Example Problem.

  2. Modify the example.

  3. Fork your modified example to a repository in your own GitHub account.

  4. Commit and push your changes.

For information about managing code and repositories in GitHub, see the GitHub Documentation.

Saving Your Work

Workspaces are automatically deleted after 21 days of inactivity. If you want to ensure that your work is retained beyond this period, do either of the following:

  • Commit and push your workspace’s changes to your GitHub repository (or one to which you have write permissions).

  • Pin your workspace by selecting the workspace’s Pin Pin button button.