Installation

Requirements

  • Python 3.10 or later

  • cryptography >= 42.0

  • cbor2 >= 5.6

  • pydantic >= 2.5

  • click >= 8.1

  • rich >= 13.0

Core install (no PQC backend)

The core package works without liboqs. Key generation, serialization, hybrid construction, Envelope, JWT, TLS helpers, scanner, auditor, and SBOM enrichment all work using the classical (X25519/Ed25519) components.

pip install quantum-safe-py

With liboqs backend (full ML-KEM / ML-DSA)

pip install 'quantum-safe-py[liboqs]'

This installs liboqs-python >= 0.10.0, < 0.12, which vendors a pre-built liboqs binary for Linux x86-64, macOS ARM/x86, and Windows x86-64. On other architectures, build liboqs from source first.

Note

Tested against liboqs-python 0.10.x – 0.15.x. The library emits a version-mismatch warning at import time if the native liboqs binary version differs from the Python wrapper; this is informational only.

Verify the install:

python -c "from quantum_safe.backends import list_available_backends; print(list_available_backends())"
# → {'rustcrypto': False, 'liboqs': True, 'noble': False}

Development install

git clone https://github.com/AnimeshShaw/quantum-safe
cd quantum-safe
pip install -e '.[dev]'
pre-commit install

Running the test suite:

# Unit tests only (no liboqs required)
python -m pytest tests/unit/ -v

# Full suite, skip slow tests
python -m pytest tests/ -v -m "not slow"

# Skip liboqs-dependent tests
python -m pytest tests/ -v -m "not requires_liboqs"

Windows notes

On Windows, liboqs-python ships a pre-built DLL so no compiler is required. If you see a version mismatch warning between liboqs and liboqs-python at import time, it is informational only — the library functions correctly.