Welcome to Minion’s documentation!
Welcome to the Minion library documentation. Minion is a high-performance, derivative-free optimization library designed for solving complex optimization problems where gradient information is unavailable or unreliable. The library implements state-of-the-art algorithms, many of which have won top positions in IEEE CEC competitions, making them highly competitive compared to traditional optimization libraries like SciPy, NLopt, OptimLib, pyGMO, and pagmo2.
Minion also provides a research-friendly environment for developing and evaluating new optimization algorithms. It includes benchmark functions from multiple CEC competitions (2011, 2014, 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2022) to facilitate algorithm testing and comparison.
This documentation covers the installation, usage, and details of both the C++ and Python interfaces of Minion.
Contents:
- Compilation and Installation
- Minion (C++)
- MinionPy (python)
- L-BFGS-B and L-BFGS (Unconstrained) Algorithms
- Notes Regarding Convergence Criteria
- Notes Regarding Vectorization Support
- Algorithm Details
- Differential Evolution (DE)
- Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)
- SPSO-2011
- Dynamic Multi-Swarm PSO (DMSPSO)
- LSHADE-cnEpSin
- CMA-ES
- BIPOP aCMA-ES
- Adaptive Restart-Refine Differential Evolution (ARRDE)
- Grey Wolf Optimizer Differential Evolution (GWO-DE)
- j2020 Algorithm
- LSRTDE Algorithm
- NLSHADE-RSP Algorithm
- JADE Algorithm
- jSO Algorithm
- LSHADE Algorithm
- IMODE Algorithm
- AGSK Algorithm
- Artificial Bee Colony (ABC)
- Dual Annealing (DA)
- Nelder-Mead Algorithm
- L-BFGS-B Algorithm
- L-BFGS Algorithm
- Contributing to Minion
- Changelog
- Version 1.5.0 - 2026-03-07
- Version 1.2.0 - 2026-03-05
- Version 1.1.0 - 2025-11-23
- Version 1.0.1 - 2025-11-07
- Version 0.2.8 - 2025-11-06
- Version 0.2.7 - 2025-10-10
- Version 0.2.6 - 2025-10-06
- Version 0.2.5 - 2025-10-05
- Version 0.2.4 - 2025-10-02
- Version 0.2.3 - 2025-08-21
- Version 0.2.2 - 2025-07-31
- Version 0.2.1 - 2025-03-01
- Version 0.2.0 - 2025-02-24
- Version 0.1.9 - 2025-02-19
- Version 0.1.8 - 2025-02-19
- Version 0.1.7 - 2025-02-13
- Version 0.1.6 - 2025-02-11
- License