libqi-windows

Windows (MSVC) build of Aldebaran's libqi and its Python bindings, packaged as a pip-installable wheel.

This lets you import qi on Windows to talk to NAO and Pepper robots — no Linux VM required.

Quick install (pre-built wheel)

pip install libqi-windows

Or from a GitHub release:

pip install libqi_windows-4.0.1-cp314-cp314-win_amd64.whl

Note: The wheel contains native DLLs and is specific to a Python version and platform. Check the Releases page for available builds.

Verify

import qi
print(qi.__version__)  # 3.1.5

session = qi.Session()
session.connect("tcp://nao.local:9559")
tts = session.service("ALTextToSpeech")
tts.say("Hello from Windows!")

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Building from source

If you need a different Python version or want to modify the code, you can rebuild everything yourself.

Prerequisites

Tool	Version	Install
Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools	17.x (MSVC 19.4x)	visualstudio.microsoft.com
CMake	≥ 3.23	winget install Kitware.CMake
Conan	2.x	pip install conan
Ninja	any	pip install ninja
Git	any	winget install Git.Git
Python	≥ 3.11, 64-bit	python.org

Conan profile (first time only)

conan profile detect

Verify ~/.conan2/profiles/default contains:

[settings]
arch=x86_64
build_type=Release
compiler=msvc
compiler.cppstd=17
compiler.runtime=dynamic
compiler.version=194        # adjust to your MSVC version
os=Windows

Build steps

1. Clone this repo:

   git clone https://github.com/SBelgers/libqi-windows.git
   cd libqi-windows
   

2. Set up Conan and Ninja (if not already installed):

   pip install conan ninja
   

3. Run the build script from an x64 VS developer shell:

   build_all.cmd -pythonversion 3.14 -buildwheel
   

   This will:

   • Auto-create a venv in venvs/314/
   • Clone libqi (v4.0.1) and libqi-python (v3.1.5) into the repo
   • Apply the MSVC patches from patches/
   • Build both with Conan + CMake
   • Install the qi package into the venv
   • Run a smoke test (import qi)
   • Build a .whl file in dist/

   Or if you already have an active venv, just run build_all.cmd without -pythonversion.

   Script parameters:

   Parameter	Description
   -pythonversion 3.13	Python version to build for (uses py launcher)
   -pythonvenv <path>	Custom venv path (auto-created if -pythonversion is set)
   -skiplibqi	Skip rebuilding libqi (it's Python-independent)
   -buildwheel	Also produce a .whl file in dist/

4. Build for multiple Python versions:

   rem First build (builds libqi + libqi-python for 3.14)
   build_all.cmd -pythonversion 3.14 -buildwheel
   
   rem Additional versions (skip libqi -- it's Python-independent)
   build_all.cmd -pythonversion 3.13 -skiplibqi -buildwheel
   build_all.cmd -pythonversion 3.12 -skiplibqi -buildwheel
   build_all.cmd -pythonversion 3.11 -skiplibqi -buildwheel
   

5. Upload to PyPI (optional):

   pip install twine
   twine upload dist/libqi_windows-4.0.1-*.whl
   

   After uploading, anyone can install with pip install libqi-windows.

Manual build (without the script)

If you prefer to run each step yourself:

cd ..

git clone --depth 1 --branch qi-framework-v4.0.1 https://github.com/aldebaran/libqi.git
cd libqi
for %f in (..\patches\libqi\*.patch) do git am "%f"
conan install . -s build_type=Release --build=missing
cmake --preset conan-release
cmake --build --preset conan-release
cd ..

git clone --depth 1 --branch qi-python-v3.1.5 https://github.com/aldebaran/libqi-python.git
cd libqi-python
for %f in (..\patches\libqi-python\*.patch) do git am "%f"
conan install . -s build_type=Release --build=missing
cmake --preset conan-release
cmake --build --preset conan-release
python install_local.py

Important: Do NOT pass -of build/release to conan install. The cmake_layout() in the conanfile already creates the build/release/ subdirectory. Passing it again causes a double-nested path and cmake will fail to find the generated presets.

What's in the patches?

libqi patches (applied to qi-framework-v4.0.1)

Patch	What it fixes
0001	Pin Boost to 1.82, comment out gtest requirement, fix uninitialised revision variable, skip GNU-specific cppstd on MSVC
0002	Add missing #include <ostream> to qi/path.hpp
0003	Suppress C4251/C4275 warnings, define qi_EXPORTS on OBJECT library, set _WIN32_WINNT, add Boost dynamic link defines
0004	Remove duplicate QI_API on static inline methods in SSL header

libqi-python patches (applied to qi-python-v3.1.5)

Patch	What it fixes
0001	Pin Boost to 1.82, add OpenSSL, use local libqi instead of Conan package, skip MSVC-incompatible compiler.libcxx
0002	Point CMake at local libqi build, copy Python files to build dir
0003	Use public Py_IsFinalizing() on Python ≥ 3.13, use Py_ssize_t instead of ssize_t for MSVC
0004	Add install_local.py script to install built files into site-packages

Why Boost 1.82?

Boost 1.83 changed the ABI of boost::filesystem::directory_entry and boost::locale::message_format. When libqi (built against Boost 1.83 headers) tries to call into the Boost 1.83 DLLs, two symbols are missing at runtime. Boost 1.82 does not have this problem.

License

The patches and build scripts in this repo are provided under the BSD-3-Clause license, matching the upstream libqi license.

libqi and libqi-python are Copyright (c) Aldebaran Robotics / SoftBank Robotics.