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 information

• QkObs
• QkObsTerm
• QkBitTerm
• QkExitCode