Installation

Requirements

  • Linux or Windows on x86_64.

  • CPython 3.10 or newer; free-threaded CPython 3.13 or newer is supported.

  • The separately installed Mech-Eye C++ SDK 2.6.0.

  • A C++17 toolchain: GCC/Clang on Linux, or MSVC x64 on Windows.

The SDK is available from the Mech-Mind download center. SDK files are not included in the Python distribution. The Python extension uses the regular CPython ABI, so it is rebuilt for each Python minor version and threading ABI.

Select the SDK

MECHEYE_SDK_ROOT overrides the platform default. It must be an absolute directory containing include and the runtime/import library directories.

Platform

Default SDK root

Runtime

Linux

/opt/mech-mind/mech-eye-sdk

lib/libMechEyeApi.so

Windows

C:/Mech-Mind/Mech-Eye SDK-2.6.0/API

dll/MechEyeApi.dll and lib/MechEyeApi.lib

For example, on Linux:

export MECHEYE_SDK_ROOT=/absolute/path/to/mech-eye-sdk
uv add --no-binary-package pymecheye pymecheye

Or with pip:

python -m pip install --no-binary=pymecheye pymecheye

Before a public source release is available, install from a local checkout:

uv add /absolute/path/to/pymecheye

On Windows, set the variable in PowerShell before installing:

$env:MECHEYE_SDK_ROOT = "C:/Mech-Mind/Mech-Eye SDK-2.6.0/API"
uv add --no-binary-package pymecheye pymecheye

Runtime validation

Importing the package checks the platform, Python ABI, and exact SDK runtime SHA-256 recorded at compilation. A different runtime is rejected with ImportError. After changing the SDK, rebuild and restart the interpreter:

uv cache clean pymecheye
uv sync --reinstall-package pymecheye

Importing the package and constructing a camera do not connect to a device.