Installation

Stable releases of the jwst package are registered at PyPI. The development version of jwst is installable from the Github repository.

jwst is also available as part of stenv (Space Telescope Environment).

Detailed Installation Instructions

The jwst package can be installed into a virtualenv or conda environment via pip. We recommend that for each installation you start by creating a fresh environment that only has Python installed and then install the jwst package and its dependencies into that bare environment. If using conda environments, first make sure you have a recent version of Anaconda or Miniconda installed. If desired, you can create multiple environments to allow for switching between different versions of the jwst package (e.g., a released version versus the current development version).

In all cases, the installation is generally a 3-step process:

  1. Create a conda environment

  2. Activate that environment

  3. Install the desired version of the jwst package into that environment

Details are given below on how to do this for different types of installations, including tagged releases, DMS builds used in operations, and development versions. Remember that all conda operations must be done from within a bash/zsh shell.

Warning

JWST requires a C compiler for dependencies.

JWST is only compatible with python versions 3.11, 3.12, 3.13, and 3.14.

Installing Latest Release

You can install the latest released version via pip. From a bash/zsh shell:

conda create -n <env_name> python=3.13
conda activate <env_name>
pip install jwst==1.21.0.dev217+gf88ed6f64

If no version tag is specified in the install command, pip will find the latest release compatible with the current environment. This can lead to an unintended jwst version, if the latest release of jwst is not compatible with your environment’s python version. Explicitly setting the version in the install command will return an informative error if the latest release is not compatible with your environment.

Installing Previous Releases

You can also install a specific version:

conda create -n <env_name> python=3.12
conda activate <env_name>
pip install jwst==1.17.1

Installing the Development Version from Github

You can install the latest development version (not as well tested) from the Github main branch:

conda create -n <env_name> python=3.13
conda activate <env_name>
pip install git+https://github.com/spacetelescope/jwst

Upgrading Installed Version

Note

Do NOT use pip install jwst --upgrade to upgrade your installation. This does not check if dependencies are upgraded and will cause issues. Instead, use the method detailed below.

If you have previously installed jwst and you would like to upgrade to keep your install up-to-date, we recommend that you first uninstall the package in your environment of choice and then reinstall:

pip uninstall jwst
pip install jwst

This will ensure that all dependency packages are also upgraded. This also applies when using the development version of jwst - to upgrade and grab recent changes, uninstall and re-install the main branch from Github:

pip uninstall jwst
pip install git+https://github.com/spacetelescope/jwst

Installing with stenv

jwst is available as part of stenv, a set of installable Conda environments that bundle software for astronomical data analysis with JWST, HST, and other observatories. See the stenv documentation for more information.

For more install instructions, including how to install jwst for development or how to install a DMS operational build, see the Github README.