Getting Qt and Qt Creator

To create and build a Qt Creator plugin, you need a compatible version of Qt, and either a Qt Creator package (released or snapshot) or your own Qt Creator build.

There are several reasons why you might want to do your own build of Qt Creator, like using the most current development version and being able to tweak Qt Creator at one or the other place. But it is not strictly necessary for creating plugins. The Qt Creator packages contain a Plugin Development component that enables plugin development with the Qt Creator contained in the package.

Getting Qt

Prebuilt Qt Creator packages usually use the latest stable release of Qt. See the exact Qt version that a Qt Creator package was built with in its About Qt Creator dialog.

The minimum requirement for building Qt Creator is stated in the README.md and near the top of the cmake/QtCreatorAPI.cmake file in the sources.

You can get prebuilt Qt packages from Qt Downloads. If you want to use Qt as provided by your Linux distribution, you need to make sure that all Qt development packages and private header packages are also installed.

Getting Qt Creator

Installing a Prebuilt Package

The prebuilt Qt Creator packages contain a Plugin Development component that contains the CMake files, headers and other files that you need to build a plugin. It is not installed by default, so make sure to select the component when installing Qt Creator.

When developing your plugin, point the CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH to the installation location of Qt Creator, or the Qt Creator app on macOS.

Get prebuilt packages either from Qt Online Installer, or a standalone Qt Creator installer either for a released Qt Creator version or a development snapshot.

Building Qt Creator

You can get the Qt Creator sources for a specific version either by using one of the released source bundles or by cloning the sources from the Git repository https://code.qt.io/cgit/qt-creator/qt-creator.git. If you intend to contribute to Qt Creator itself, you should use the repository from our Gerrit review tool as described in: Setting up Gerrit.

Refer to the README.md included in the sources for details on building Qt Creator.

When developing your plugin, point the CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH to the build location of Qt Creator.