Installation Guide

Prerequisites

Python 3.9 or later - Download from https://www.python.org/downloads/
pip - Included with Python 3.4+
An Xplain server instance - Required for connecting and running analyses

Install from PyPI

pip install xplain

Install from Source

For development or to get the latest version:

git clone <repository-url>
cd xplainpy

# Create and activate a virtual environment (recommended)
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate    # macOS/Linux
venv\Scripts\activate       # Windows

# Install in editable mode
pip install -e .

Optional Dependencies

MCP Server Integration (for Claude AI integration):

pip install -e ".[mcp]"

Development/Testing:

pip install -e ".[dev]"

Core Dependencies

The following packages are installed automatically:

pandas - Data manipulation and analysis
numpy - Numerical computing
requests - HTTP client for Web API calls
treelib - Tree data structure and visualization
patsy - Statistical formula API
statsmodels - Statistical modeling
pyecharts - Data visualization
pydantic - Data validation

Verify Installation

import xplain
print(xplain.__version__)

Recommended IDE and Tools

JupyterLab - Interactive notebooks: https://jupyter.org/install
PyCharm - Full-featured Python IDE: https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/
VS Code - Lightweight editor with Python support: https://code.visualstudio.com/

Configuration and Credentials

After installation, configure credentials for secure authentication.

Option 1: Config File (Recommended)

Create ~/.xplainpyrc:

{
  "url": "http://localhost:8080",
  "user": "myuser",
  "password": "mypassword"
}

Secure the file:

chmod 600 ~/.xplainpyrc

Option 2: Environment Variables

export XPLAIN_URL="http://localhost:8080"
export XPLAIN_USER="myuser"
export XPLAIN_PASSWORD="mypassword"

Multiple Environments:

For managing credentials across multiple environments (dev, staging, production), see the complete Authentication & Credential Management guide.

Legacy Environment Variables

These are still supported for backward compatibility:

export xplain_url="http://myhost:8080"
export xplain_session_id="30FA4025AC5AE68852D803838FAA503D"