Requirements
This project requires Python 3.10+.
Recommendation: Use a Python virtual environment to isolate dependencies. See the official Python venv documentation for setup instructions.
Platform Prerequisites
Ubuntu/Linux
From a fresh Ubuntu 20.04 system and up, running the client from source requires git, pip and libraries for the Qt GUI:
sudo apt install git python3-pip libxcb-xinerama0 libxcb-cursor0
pip3 install --upgrade pip
Setting udev permissions
Using Crazyradio on Ubuntu/Linux requires that you set udev permissions. See the cflib installation guide for more information.
Windows
Install Python 3 using the official Python build from python.org. Make sure to check the “add to path” checkbox during installation. Verify the installation by opening a cmd or PowerShell terminal:
python --version
pip --version
Upgrade pip:
pip install --upgrade pip
Install Git from the official Git website. Make sure it is in PATH, which can be verified with:
git --version
If you’re using Python 3.13, you need to install Visual Studio. During the installation process, you only need to select the Desktop Development with C++ workload in the Visual Studio Installer.
Install Crazyradio drivers
To use Crazyradio you will need to install the drivers.
macOS
The client requires macOS 11 (Big Sur) or more recent. It works on both x86 and Apple Silicon Macs.
The client works with both the Apple-provided Python 3 (as long as it is Python >= 3.10) and with Python installed via Homebrew.
Raspberry Pi
On Raspberry Pi Bookworm it is required to create a Python venv to install the client, but the system’s PyQt6 should still be used.
Install dependencies:
sudo apt install -y pipx python3-pyqt6 pyqt6-dev-tools
Then, to install the client:
pipx install --system-site-packages .
The --system-site-packages flag is important as it allows using the PyQt6 installed above. The same flag can be passed to python3 -m venv to create a Python venv that can run the client.
The first time pipx will complain about binaries not being in the path. Rebooting the Pi solves the problem, and then the client can be launched by typing cfclient in a console.
USB permissions need to be set as described above for Ubuntu/Linux.
Installation Methods
From PyPI (Recommended)
If you plan to use the client to control the Crazyflie, we highly recommend installing the latest release using pip, as this is well tested and stable:
pip install cfclient
For macOS specifically:
python3 -m pip install cfclient
The client can then be launched from a console with cfclient or python3 -m cfclient.gui.
From Source (Development)
If you are planning to do development work with the cfclient, install from source.
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/bitcraze/crazyflie-clients-python
cd crazyflie-clients-python
Install the client from source
For basic installation:
pip install -e .
For development (includes additional tools):
pip install -e .[dev]
Note: Avoid running pip with sudo, as this would install dependencies system-wide and could cause compatibility problems. If pip requests administrator password, you should run the command with --user (for example python3 -m pip install --user -e .). This should not be required on modern Python distributions though since the --user flag seems to be the default behavior.
Development Tools (Optional)
Pre-commit hooks
If you want help maintaining Python coding standards, you can install hooks that verify your style at commit time:
pip install pre-commit
cd crazyflie-clients-python
pre-commit install
pre-commit run --all-files
This will run the lint checkers defined in .pre-commit-config-yaml on your proposed changes and alert you if you need to change anything.
Working with the GUI .ui files
You can edit the .ui files for the GUI with QtCreator. For Windows and Mac you can download the Qt development kit from the Qt website. On Linux QtCreator is usually available as package, for example on Ubuntu it can be installed with sudo apt install qtcreator.
Debugging the client from an IDE
It is convenient to be able to set breakpoints, examine variables and so on from an IDE when debugging the client. To get
this to work you need to run the python module cfclient.gui as the debug target in the IDE.
In VSCode for instance, the launch.json should look something like this:
{
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"name": "Crazyflie client",
"type": "python",
"request": "launch",
"module": "cfclient.gui"
},
]
}
As noted earlier, it is common that work on the client also involve work in the crazyflie-lib-python.
The launch.json documented here can also be used in the crazyflie lib project to debug lib-related code.