Environment and prerequisites

Choose the environment that will execute your workflow. The Python library and the CLI share model APIs, but their installed packages need not be the same.

Workflow	Environment to prepare	Next step
Python scripts or notebooks	An isolated Python 3.11–3.13 environment.	Install the library.
r2x pipelines	The runtime managed by r2x-cli.	Install the CLI plugin.

Python scripts and notebooks

Confirm that the interpreter you intend to use is supported:

python --version

If this reports an unsupported version, select an installed Python 3.11, 3.12, or 3.13 interpreter before creating the environment. Create a virtual environment in your project directory:

python -m venv .venv

Activate it on macOS/Linux:

source .venv/bin/activate

Or activate it in Windows PowerShell:

.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

Confirm where Python is running before installing packages:

python -c "import sys; print(sys.executable)"

The path should point inside this .venv. For notebooks, select the corresponding kernel so imports and package installation use the same interpreter.

CLI pipelines

Install uv and the r2x-cli binary. Confirm the executable is available:

r2x --version

Prepare the Python runtime required by that CLI binary:

r2x python install

Inspect its actual version and environment path:

r2x python show

The CLI binary’s Python ABI must match its managed runtime. The tutorials were executed with CLI 0.1.15 and its Python 3.12 runtime. Changing a project virtual environment does not change the binary’s ABI; see CLI runtime guidance if startup reports an ABI mismatch.

Data prerequisites

You do not need study data to verify installation. The tutorial downloads pinned public fixture data using curl and explains its companion files. It needs network access and a new working directory. XML parsing does not need a licensed PLEXOS solver; running an optimization is a separate workflow.