2. Installing select_ai

2.1. Installation requirements

To use select_ai you need:

  • Python 3.11, 3.12, 3.13, or 3.14.

  • Access to an Oracle Database environment where Select AI is available.

  • A database user with the required Select AI package privileges. See Privileges.

  • Network access from the database to any AI provider endpoints you plan to use.

  • python-oracledb and pandas. These packages are installed automatically as dependencies.

Using a virtual environment is recommended so the package and its dependencies are isolated from your system Python installation.

2.2. select_ai installation

select_ai can be installed from the Python Package Index PyPI using pip.

  1. Install Python 3 if it is not already available. Use any version from Python 3.11 through 3.14.

  2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

    python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

    On Windows PowerShell:

    py -3 -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

  3. Upgrade pip:

    python -m pip install --upgrade pip

  4. Install select_ai:

    python -m pip install --upgrade select_ai

  5. If you want the optional command line interface, install the cli extra:

    python -m pip install --upgrade "select_ai[cli]"

    This installs the select-ai command. See Command Line Interface.

  6. If you are behind a proxy, use the --proxy option. For example:

    python -m pip install --upgrade select_ai --proxy=http://proxy.example.com:80

2.3. Connection smoke test

After installation, verify that Python can import select_ai and connect to Oracle Database.

  1. Set database connection environment variables:

    export SELECT_AI_USER=<select_ai_db_user>
export SELECT_AI_PASSWORD=<select_ai_db_password>
export SELECT_AI_DB_CONNECT_STRING=<db_connect_string>

  2. Create a file select_ai_connection_test.py:

    import os

import select_ai

user = os.getenv("SELECT_AI_USER")
password = os.getenv("SELECT_AI_PASSWORD")
dsn = os.getenv("SELECT_AI_DB_CONNECT_STRING")

select_ai.connect(user=user, password=password, dsn=dsn)
print("Connected to the Database")

  3. Run the script:

    python select_ai_connection_test.py

    If the connection succeeds, the script prints:

    Connected to the Database

2.4. Install documentation dependencies

If you are building this documentation locally from the repository, install the documentation dependencies:

python -m pip install -r doc/requirements.txt

Then build the docs with the project’s Sphinx command or Makefile target.