# Build the QIR SDK

The following sections explain how to build the QIR SDK.

Warning

It's not recommended to rebuild the QIR SDK, as this process is very complex for non-professionals. Unless you encounter the following situations and understand what you are doing:

- The device you are using is listed in Supported platforms, but it doesn't have a prebuilt image file available; for example, the IQ-8 Beta Evaluation Kit.
- You want to add new features to the QIR SDK.
- You want to change the content of the target image.
- You want to fix bugs in the QIR SDK.
- You want to optimize the performance of the QIR SDK.
- You want to change the version of certain components.

## Choose the best method for you

To synchronize and build the QIR SDK and robotics image, and you can choose any of the following four options:

- Use the Qualcomm Software Center (QSC) Launcher GUI.
- Use the Qualcomm Software Center command line interface (QSC-CLI).
- Use the GitHub workflow on your PC. **(Recommended)**
- Use Docker for compilation on your PC. **(Recommended)**

If you only want to build the robotics image, you can use the prebuilt eSDK in Supported platforms using the following method:

> 
> 
> Build the robotics image with the prebuilt robotics eSDK

## Host computer requirements

The following requirements apply to your host machine for compiling the QIR SDK:

| **Hardware** | x86 machine<br><br><br>Quad-core CPU, for example, Intel i7-2600 at 3.4 GHz (equivalent or better)<br><br><br>≥ 450 GB free disk space (swap partition ≥ 32 GB)<br><br><br>≥ 16 GB RAM |
| --- | --- |
| **Software** | Git 1.8.3.1 or later versions<br><br><br>Tar 1.28 or later versions<br><br><br>Python 3.10.2 or later versions<br><br><br>GCC 7.5 or later versions<br><br><br>GNU Make 4.0 or later versions<br><br><br>A sudo permission is required to run a few commands |

Note

To set up a virtual machine (VM) running Ubuntu 22.04 on Microsoft Windows or Apple® macOS®,
see [Qualcomm Linux Virtual Machine Setup Guide](https://docs.qualcomm.com/bundle/publicresource/topics/80-70017-41/getting-started.html).
Code compilation on a VM is a slow process and may take a few hours. Qualcomm recommends using an Ubuntu host machine for compilation.

Last Published: Oct 10, 2025

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