Installing IsaacLab-Arena in Your Repository

The recommended way to consume IsaacLab-Arena from an external project is to include it as an unmodified git submodule and extend it purely through its registration API — without editing any file inside the Arena source tree.

This is the currently recommended integration pattern until IsaacLab-Arena is available as a published pip package, at which point the submodule will be replaced by a simple pip install isaaclab_arena. The environment and asset extension patterns below will remain unchanged.

Repository Layout

A typical external repository looks like this:

my_project/
├── submodules/
│   └── IsaacLab-Arena/          ← unmodified Arena submodule
├── my_package/
│   ├── pyproject.toml
│   ├── isaaclab_arena_environments/
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── my_environment.py    ← custom environment class
├── docker/
│   └── Dockerfile
└── .gitmodules

Add the submodule with:

git submodule add git@github.com:isaac-sim/IsaacLab-Arena.git submodules/IsaacLab-Arena

Dockerfile

Your base image must already have Isaac Sim and Isaac Lab installed (e.g. nvcr.io/nvidia/isaac-sim:6.0.0).

Copy the submodule into the image and install Arena before your own package run pip install -e.

# Base image must have Isaac Sim
# e.g. FROM nvcr.io/nvidia/isaac-sim:6.0.0

# Image must have Isaac Lab installed
# e.g. RUN /isaaclab/isaaclab.sh -i

# Copy the submodule into the image and install Arena
COPY submodules/IsaacLab-Arena /opt/arena
RUN /isaac-sim/python.sh -m pip install -e /opt/arena

# Install your package after Arena is in place
COPY my_package /workspace/my_package
RUN /isaac-sim/python.sh -m pip install -e /workspace/my_package

See Arena’s own Dockerfile for a complete reference, including Isaac Lab installation and optional GR00T dependencies.

Note

Note that above we have assumed that Arena is being installed inside a Docker container. Of course, if you have an non-Docker environment that satisfies the prerequisites, you can install Arena directly into that environment, without the need for Docker.

Next Steps

Once Arena is installed, see Defining Environments in Your Repository for how to define your own environments in your repository.