Special Plugin-Types

The main plugin types are covered by Writing Plugins. This document describes groups of plugins that implement a common interface and can be identified by the tags they use.

Interface	Tags	Description
Quantum Circuit Executor Plugins	circuit-executor, [qc-simulator]	A plugin that is capable of executing quantum circuits.
Minimizer Plugins	minimizer, [gradient]	A plugin that can minimize objective functions.
Objective Function Plugins	objective-function, [gradient]	A plugin that computes the value of an objective function used in an optimization process.

• Quantum Circuit Executor Plugins
  • Interface
    • Main Interaction
    • Inputs
    • Outputs
    • Substeps
      • 1. "authentication" (optional)
    • Interaction Endpoints
      • devices (optional)
• Minimizer Plugins
  • Interface
    • Main Interaction
    • Inputs
    • Outputs
    • Substeps
      • 1. optional plugin-specific steps
      • 2. "minimize" required
      • 3. optional plugin-specific steps
    • Interaction Endpoints
• Objective Function Plugins
  • Interface
    • Main Interaction
    • Inputs
    • Outputs
    • Substeps
      • 1. optional plugin-specific steps
      • 2. "pass_data" required
      • 3. optional plugin-specific steps
      • 4. "evaluate" required
    • Interaction Endpoints
    • Task Specific Interaction Endpoints
      • of-weights (active during step 4)
      • of-evaluate (active during step 4)
      • of-evaluate-gradient (optional; active during step 4)
      • of-evaluate-combined (optional; active during step 4)
• Interactions
  • Optimization Plugin Interaction (coarse)
  • Optimization Plugin Interaction (detailed)