ZenML Release Notes

Resource pools have been rebuilt on the new ZenML Pro Resource Manager, which now decides scheduling, allocation, and eviction. Eligible dynamic steps request resources through it and wait for an allocation before they start, and Kubernetes is the first backend to apply the allocated CPU, memory, and GPU capacity as pod requests and limits. Running steps keep their allocation alive through step heartbeats and are cancelled gracefully if their resources are reclaimed.

Breaking: the previous resource pool implementation has been removed together with its data — existing pools, policies, and resource requests are not migrated and need to be set up again.

Reading logs from external log stores no longer means one huge query or hitting the backend's rate limits. A new GET /api/v1/logs/{logs_id}/entries endpoint returns logs in pages with cursors and supports search, level, since, and until filters, and the Datadog log store has been rewritten on top of it. If you maintain a custom log store, update it to the new BaseLogStore.fetch() signature and import LogEntry from zenml.models. For Datadog, the existing run and step log endpoints now return the newest 1,000 entries instead of up to 50,000.

Breaking Changes

Resource pools have been reworked to use ZenML Pro Resource Manager v2, and the old OSS resource-pool control-plane objects and related API/CLI/RBAC behavior have been removed. If you used legacy resource pool management in OSS or automation built on those endpoints/commands, you will need to migrate to the new resource request model and update any scripts or integrations accordingly. PR #4977

ZenML now requires Click >=8.3.3,<=8.5.0. If your environment, plugin, or custom CLI extension pins an older Click version or depends on older Click behavior, update those dependencies to a compatible version before upgrading ZenML. PR #5145

Dictionary outputs with non-string keys are no longer materialized through the JSON path. If you relied on reading such artifacts back as JSON-compatible data with keys converted to strings, update your code to preserve original key types or change outputs to use string keys for JSON interoperability. PR #5124

Log retrieval now uses a paginated/filterable entries API instead of assuming a single full log blob, especially for external log stores. If you consume ZenML log APIs directly or built tooling around the previous response shape, update it to use the new log entries endpoint and pagination/filter parameters. PR #5158

Reduced database growth from unused pipeline snapshots: ZenML now cleans up anonymous pipeline snapshots that are no longer referenced by runs, deployments, schedules, or templates. Snapshot creation is also atomic, so failed or interrupted creation attempts no longer leave partial snapshot records behind, and replacing named snapshots no longer keeps unused superseded snapshots around. This helps long-running ZenML deployments keep database size under control with less manual maintenance. PR #5166

Fixed

Dynamic pipeline DAG loading: Dynamic pipeline run DAGs now load correctly even when step records are returned out of dependency order. This fixes cases where the UI or API could fail to render a dynamic run graph despite the underlying run data being valid. PR #5263

Larger cached API transactions: API transaction results are now validated against the compressed storage format instead of the uncompressed Base64 JSON representation. This allows large but highly compressible responses to be cached correctly, reducing unnecessary retries when an original request completes after the client timeout. PR #5262

Capped exponential backoff overflow: Retry loops using capped exponential backoff no longer keep calculating ever-growing delay values after the maximum delay has been reached. This prevents OverflowError failures in very long-running retry scenarios while preserving the configured maximum delay behavior. PR #5265

What's Changed

Add 0.96.4 to the migration tests by @github-actions[bot] in #5233

Add version 0.96.3 to legacy docs by @github-actions[bot] in #5231

Bump the minor-and-patch group across 1 directory with 5 updates by @dependabot[bot] in #5242

Software factory example by @schustmi in #5246

Fix lint failures introduced by the software factory example by @safoinme in #5251

Fix the c465032f0ec0 DB migration script to be idempotent by @stefannica in #5252

Support for resource pools v2 by @stefannica in #4977

Bump the minor-and-patch group across 1 directory with 3 updates by @dependabot[bot] in #5259

Enable otel instrumentation for DB migration job by @amitvikramraj in #5228

Prevent overflow in capped exponential backoff by @stefannica in #5265

Upgrading the click dependency by @bcdurak in #5145

Fixes around JSON materialization by @bcdurak in #5124

Document step_pod_service_account_name for Kubernetes step pods by @strickvl in #5266

Fix dynamic pipeline DAG ordering by @schustmi in #5263

Bump anthropics/claude-code-action from 1.0.213 to 1.0.219 in the minor-and-patch group across 1 directory by @dependabot[bot] in #5275

Add Red Hat OpenShift version to workspace Helm deployment prerequisites by @devin-ai-integration[bot] in #5267

Consistent session, component and run id labels across sandboxes by @schustmi in #5273

Fix BentoML doc links failing link check CI by @strickvl in #5279

Update README branding by @strickvl in #5282

[DB growth initiative #2] Clean up unreachable snapshots and make creation atomic by @safoinme in #5166

docs: replace the README header with the rebranded ZenML banner by @znegrin in #5283

Swap the docs card covers and the Pro hero for the new brand by @znegrin in #5277

Update SDK docs typography by @strickvl in #5286

docs: rebrand the README video thumbnail and the Helm chart icon by @znegrin in #5285

Fix develop CI: scikit-learn build on Windows 3.14, MLflow registry example, LightGBM on 3.14, bentoml link 429 by @htahir1 in #5225

Clarify agent task boundaries and verification guidance by @strickvl in #5249

Fix the LlamaIndex agent example dependency by @strickvl in #5288

Pagination/filtering for external log stores by @bcdurak in #5158

Allow larger API transactions by @stefannica in #5262

Bump the minor-and-patch group across 1 directory with 7 updates by @dependabot[bot] in #5296

Bump zizmor from 1.30.0 to 1.30.1 in /.github/zizmor by @dependabot[bot] in #5295

Fixing the dashboard installation by @bcdurak in #5298

Prepare release 0.97.0 by @github-actions[bot] in #5292

Full Changelog: 0.96.4...0.97.0

Webhook-driven automation

Webhook triggers for pipeline snapshots: ZenML now supports first-class webhook-driven automation for secure, project-scoped integrations with GitHub or custom systems PR #5169. You can attach webhook triggers to pipeline snapshots and launch them when matching external events arrive, including typed GitHub filters for merged pull requests, completed workflow runs, pushes, and published releases.

ClickUp webhook provider: ZenML now includes a built-in ClickUp webhook provider for triggering automation from ClickUp task and list events PR #5216. The provider authenticates deliveries with ClickUp’s raw hex HMAC signature and supports string-based filters, so teams can connect ClickUp activity directly to ZenML workflows.

Slack webhook provider: ZenML Pro now supports inbound Slack Events API callbacks as a first-class webhook provider PR #5221. Slack apps can authenticate events such as mentions, messages, reactions, and other automation-focused activity to trigger pipeline snapshots or related workflows; this is separate from the existing Slack alerter that sends notifications to Slack.

AWS RDS IAM authentication for MySQL stores: The MySQL ZenML store now supports AWS RDS IAM database authentication while preserving the existing password-based behavior PR #5113. ZenML generates fresh IAM tokens for database connections and enforces TLS hostname and certificate verification in IAM mode, giving AWS users a passwordless database authentication option aligned with RDS security best practices.

Faster pipeline startup with reused build checksums: ZenML now precalculates and reuses Docker build checksums while resolving pipeline builds PR #5154. This avoids repeated build-configuration work during startup, especially for large pipelines with many steps, and also helps when skip_build=True because ZenML no longer repeats unnecessary build preparation checks.

Safer workload-scoped tokens: Workload-scoped API tokens can no longer be exchanged for persistent, unscoped API tokens PR #5152. This keeps credentials bound to the pipeline run, schedule, or deployment that created them, so workload permissions expire with the workload authorization instead of being escalated into longer-lived generic API access.

Production/stable package metadata: Future ZenML releases are now marked as Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable on PyPI instead of beta PR #5186. This aligns the published package metadata with ZenML’s current maturity and makes the package classification clearer for users and automated tooling.

Fixed

Failed dynamic pipelines now report failure correctly: Dynamic pipelines running with ExecutionMode.STOP_ON_FAILURE no longer complete successfully when an isolated step fails PR #5182. ZenML now propagates the failed step state correctly so the overall pipeline run status matches the actual execution outcome.

What's Changed

• Add version 0.96.2 to legacy docs by @github-actions[bot] in #5147
• Fail agent examples on provider errors by @strickvl in #5144
• Fix AWS Strands GPT-5 temperature by @strickvl in #5151
• Pin setup-python and extend Dependabot to composite actions by @strickvl in #5118
• Escape $ in generated Docker Compose files by @kounelisagis in #5087
• Bump actions/stale from 10.4.0 to 11.0.0 by @dependabot[bot] in #5134
• Reframe Kitaru docs around executions and replay; fix unshipped API samples by @htahir1 in #5099
• Treat infer_artifact=False as the documented default in add_tags/remove_tags by @chuenchen309 in #5097
• Refresh the Kitaru SDK reference by @strickvl in #5156
• Fix dead Kitaru example links in docs/book/user-guide by @strickvl in #5161
• Fix completed pipeline with failed steps bug by @Json-Andriopoulos in #5182
• Update Kitaru documentation for current architecture by @AlexejPenner in #5184
• Add RDS IAM database authentication by @safoinme in #5113
• Fix Qwen-Agent example dependency installation by @strickvl in #5181
• Mark ZenML as production/stable on PyPI by @strickvl in #5186
• Expand custom flavor docs with remote instructions by @stefannica in #5183
• Better dependency handling for the Databricks orchestrator / step operator by @bcdurak in #5146
• Prevent exchanging scoped workload tokens for unscoped ones by @stefannica in #5152
• Precalculate and reuse build checksums by @stefannica in #5154
• Bump the minor-and-patch group across 1 directory with 8 updates by @dependabot[bot] in #5150
• Fix breaking cases of dynamic pipelines by @Json-Andriopoulos in #5187
• Run the Kubernetes release quickstart inside staging by @safoinme in #5189
• Mention Kitaru in the evals, tracing and agent-example docs by @strickvl in #5208
• Bump cardinalby/schema-validator-action from 77eb17b070f282db4680215551cae4d9c379f2f4 to 95ce895b6846cc7d931785fcaa46c84816753612 by @dependabot[bot] in #5211
• Bump the minor-and-patch group with 5 updates by @dependabot[bot] in #5210
• Bump astral-sh/setup-uv from 9.0.0 to 10.0.1 by @dependabot[bot] in #5212
• Update the security policy by @stefannica in #5214
• Dispatch staging workspace runtime builds by @safoinme in #5185
• Clear standing CI reds: bump mkdocs-material, pin zizmor, skip Docker tests for Dependabot by @strickvl in #5213
• Feature/webhook triggers by @Json-Andriopoulos in #5169
• Feature/webhook followup features by @Json-Andriopoulos in #5217
• Sanitize the chart version in the version label by @safoinme in #5222
• Add ClickUp webhook provider by @bcdurak in #5216
• Slack webhook provider by @stefannica in #5221
• Return Kubernetes release quickstart to GitHub-hosted runners by @safoinme in #5229
• Raw event storage and downstream access by @Json-Andriopoulos in #5227
• Prepare release 0.96.4 by @github-actions[bot] in #5230

Full Changelog: 0.96.3...0.96.4