Ascent Science Python SDK

Ascent Science SDK 0.5.2 separates two execution modes:

• ascent.local.LocalOptimizer executes exact and heuristic algorithms in the caller's Python process. It is intended for debugging, benchmarks, and small-scale workloads.
• ascent.cim.CIMOptimizer submits QUBO/Ising matrices to an explicitly configured real CIM gateway, polls task state, downloads the result, and caches successful results locally.

The hardware client never falls back to a simulator. Without ASCENT_CIM_ENDPOINT, construction raises ConfigurationError.

Local execution

from ascent.local import LocalOptimizer

optimizer = LocalOptimizer("qubo", method="exact")
result = optimizer.solve([[-2.0, 0.0], [0.0, -1.0]])
print(result.best_solution, result.best_value)

Supported pairs:

• qubo/exact
• qubo/cim_simulator
• tsp/aco
• continuous/pso

Concrete ACOOptimizer, PSOOptimizer, and CIMSimulator classes remain available from ascent.local.

One-command ant colony solver

After the SDK is installed and activated, run the built-in TSP example directly:

ascent-aco

Use a JSON or CSV distance matrix for your own problem:

ascent-aco --matrix distances.json --ants 50 --iterations 300 --start-city 0

JSON input may be a two-dimensional array or an object with a distance_matrix field. Add --json when the result will be consumed by another program.

One-command particle swarm solver

Run the default two-dimensional Sphere benchmark:

ascent-pso

Choose an included objective and tune the search space:

ascent-pso --objective rastrigin --dimensions 5 --lower -5.12 --upper 5.12 \
  --particles 50 --iterations 300

Available command-line objectives are sphere, rastrigin, and rosenbrock. Python callers can continue passing any callable objective to LocalOptimizer("continuous", method="pso").

CIM hardware execution

from ascent.cim import CIMOptimizer

optimizer = CIMOptimizer(
    task_name="production-qubo",
    endpoint="https://your-real-cim-gateway.example/v1",
)
task = optimizer.solve_qubo([[-2.0, 0.0], [0.0, -1.0]])
result = task.wait(timeout=600)
print(result.best_solution, result.best_value, result.cached)

Set ASCENT_CIM_ENDPOINT instead of passing endpoint in application code. The configured service must implement POST /tasks, GET /tasks/{id}, POST /tasks/{id}/cancel, and GET /tasks/{id}/logs.

First-use SDK activation stores an owner-only license at ~/.ascent/license.json. Hardware results are cached under ~/.ascent/cim-cache unless caching is disabled.