Kit-less Installation

Isaac Lab can be installed and used without Isaac Sim using the kit-less mode. This is the fastest way to get started and is ideal for users who only need the Newton physics backend.

Preparing a Python Environment

Creating a dedicated Python environment is strongly recommended. It helps:

• Avoid conflicts with system Python or other projects installed on your machine.

• Keep dependencies isolated, so that package upgrades or experiments in other projects do not break Isaac Sim.

• Easily manage multiple environments for setups with different versions of dependencies.

• Simplify reproducibility — the environment contains only the packages needed for the current project, making it easier to share setups with colleagues or run on different machines.

We recommend uv as the package manager — it is significantly faster than pip and conda for creating environments and resolving dependencies.

Caution

The Python version of the virtual environment must match the Python version of Isaac Sim.

• For Isaac Sim 6.X, the required Python version is 3.12.

Using a different Python version will result in errors when running Isaac Lab.

The following instructions are for Isaac Sim 6.X, which requires Python 3.12.

• Create a virtual environment using one of the package managers:

  UV Environment (Recommended)

  uv is the fastest and recommended way to create a Python environment for Isaac Lab. To install uv, please follow the instructions here.

  Linux

  # create a virtual environment named env_isaaclab with python3.12 and pip
  uv venv --python 3.12 --seed env_isaaclab
  # activate the virtual environment
  source env_isaaclab/bin/activate
  

  Windows

  :: create a virtual environment named env_isaaclab with python3.12 and pip
  uv venv --python 3.12 --seed env_isaaclab
  :: activate the virtual environment
  env_isaaclab\Scripts\activate
  

  Note

  The --seed flag ensures pip is available inside the uv virtual environment, which is required by the Isaac Lab installer.

  Conda Environment

  To install conda, please follow the instructions here. You can create the Isaac Lab environment using the following commands.

  We recommend using Miniconda, since it is light-weight and resource-efficient environment management system.

  conda create -n env_isaaclab python=3.12
  conda activate env_isaaclab
  

• Ensure the latest pip version is installed. To update pip, run the following command from inside the virtual environment:

  Linux

  uv pip install --upgrade pip
  

  Windows

  uv pip install --upgrade pip
  

  Note

  If you are using pip directly instead of uv pip, replace uv pip with pip (or python -m pip on Windows) in the commands above and throughout this guide.

Cloning and installing Isaac Lab

With the virtual environment activated, clone the repository and run the kit-less installer:

# Clone Isaac Lab
git clone https://github.com/isaac-sim/IsaacLab.git
cd IsaacLab

# Install Isaac Lab (Newton backend, no Isaac Sim required)
./isaaclab.sh --install   # or ./isaaclab.sh -i

# Kickoff training with MJWarp physics and Newton visualizer
./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/reinforcement_learning/rsl_rl/train.py \
--task=Isaac-Cartpole-Direct-v0 \
--num_envs=16 --max_iterations=10 \
presets=newton_mjwarp --visualizer newton

Features available in kit-less mode (Newton backend, no Isaac Sim):

• Newton physics simulation (GPU-accelerated, including MuJoCo-Warp solver)

• All manager-based and direct RL environments that support Newton

• RL training with SKRL, RSL-RL, and other frameworks

• Robot assets compatible with Newton

Features that require Isaac Sim:

• PhysX physics backend

• Isaac Sim RTX rendering (not ovrtx)

• Kit visualizer

• Photorealistic rendering workflows

• ROS / ROS2 integration

• URDF and MJCF importers (GUI-based)

• Deformable objects and surface gripper (PhysX-only)

• Teleoperation and imitation learning workflows

To install Isaac Sim, use the pip method described in Installation using Isaac Sim Pip Package.

Selective Install

If you want a minimal environment, ./isaaclab.sh -i accepts comma-separated sub-package names:

Option	What it does
isaacsim	Install Isaac Sim pip package
newton	Install Newton physics + Newton visualizer
physx	Install PhysX physics runtime
ov	Install Omniverse renderer runtime
tasks	Install built-in task environments
assets	Install robot/object configurations
visualizers	Install all visualizer backends
rsl_rl	Install RSL-RL framework
skrl	Install skrl framework
sb3	Install Stable Baselines3 framework
rl_games	Install rl_games framework
robomimic	Install robomimic framework
none	Install only core isaaclab package

Examples:

# Minimal Newton setup
./isaaclab.sh -i newton,tasks,assets,ov,rl[rsl_rl]

# Newton with OVRTX, RSL-RL, and Newton visualizer
./isaaclab.sh -i newton,tasks,assets,ov[ovrtx],rl[rsl_rl],visualizers[newton]

OVRTX Rendering

OVRTX provides GPU-accelerated rendering for vision tasks without Kit.

./isaaclab.sh -i ov[ovrtx]

./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/benchmarks/benchmark_rsl_rl.py \
  --task Isaac-Repose-Cube-Shadow-Vision-Benchmark-Direct-v0 \
  --headless --enable_cameras --num_envs 16 --max_iterations 10 \
  presets=newton_mjwarp,ovrtx_renderer,simple_shading_diffuse_mdl

Running Installation Tests

./isaaclab.sh -p -m pytest source/isaaclab/test/cli/test_cli_utils.py -v