stevengj/nlopt

Health v2 · maintenance only

Flags: no_license

Adoption not part of the score

2267 stars · 681 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

NLopt is a C library providing a unified interface to many free/open-source algorithms for nonlinear local and global optimization, with or without gradient information, supporting constrained and unconstrained problems. It offers bindings for numerous languages including C++, Python, Fortran, Julia, R, and Java.

Use cases

• minimize a nonlinear objective function with constraints
• fit model parameters via least-squares optimization
• solve global optimization problems without gradients
• perform gradient-based local optimization in C or Python
• wrap multiple optimization algorithms behind one API

When to choose

• you need a mature, multi-language nonlinear optimization library with many algorithm choices
• you need both gradient-based and derivative-free optimizers in one interface
• you work in C/C++, Python, Julia, or R and need constrained optimization

When to avoid

• you need mixed-integer or discrete optimization
• you want a pure high-level Python experience like scipy.optimize with rich ecosystem integration
• you need machine-learning-specific optimizers such as SGD or Adam for neural networks

Facets

library · maturity stable

math sdk mathematics data-science cpp python cross-platform jvm rust nonlinear-optimization global-optimization constrained-optimization gradient-based numerical-methods scientific-computing algorithms julia

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