> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://nixtlaverse.nixtla.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Installation

> Install SynForecast, verify the build, and add optional dataframe engines.

## From PyPI

```bash theme={null}
pip install synforecast
```

Or with uv:

```bash theme={null}
uv add synforecast
```

Prebuilt wheels bundle the compiled Rust extension, so no toolchain is
needed on the supported platforms:

| Platform          | Architectures                     |
| ----------------- | --------------------------------- |
| Linux (manylinux) | x86-64, aarch64                   |
| macOS             | Intel x86-64, Apple Silicon arm64 |
| Windows           | x86-64                            |

Wheels are published for CPython 3.10 through 3.14.

## Verify the install

```bash theme={null}
python -c "import synforecast; from synforecast import _lib; print(synforecast.__version__)"
```

The `_lib` import is the meaningful part: it confirms the native
extension loaded, since generation runs in Rust with no Python fallback.

## Runtime dependencies

`pip install synforecast` pulls in `narwhals`, `numpy`, `pandas`,
`polars`, and `pydantic`. There are no optional extras — both pandas and
polars are required, because output is materialized through narwhals
rather than one fixed backend.

## Optional dataframe engines

`engine="pandas"` (the default) and `engine="polars"` work out of the
box. Three further engines are accepted but not installed by default:

```bash theme={null}
pip install pyarrow          # engine="pyarrow"
pip install "modin[dask]"    # engine="modin"
```

`engine="cudf"` requires a RAPIDS cuDF build and a CUDA GPU; install it
from the RAPIDS channel for your CUDA version.

## Building from source

Installing from the source distribution compiles the Rust extension,
which needs a stable Rust toolchain (install via
[rustup](https://rustup.rs)):

```bash theme={null}
pip install synforecast --no-binary synforecast
```

## From a git checkout

For development, clone the repository and use the `devenv` target, which
runs `uv sync --dev` and installs the pre-commit hooks:

```bash theme={null}
git clone https://github.com/Nixtla/synforecast.git
cd synforecast
make devenv
```

See
[CONTRIBUTING](https://github.com/Nixtla/synforecast/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md)
for the test and lint workflow.

> **Alpha versioning**
>
> SynForecast is in alpha. APIs and seed-identical outputs may change
> between releases, so pin a version if you depend on exact generated
> values.

## Next

* [Quick start](quickstart) — generate a panel and control the
  generators.
* [Balanced pool](../capabilities/balanced_pool) — what
  `generate_series` draws from by default.