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Changelog

Release notes and version history for the bitHuman platform.

Note Product-level changes only. For per-version notes, see the Python SDK CHANGELOG and the Swift SDK releases.

June 2026

Python SDK bithuman 2.3.4 (2026-06-12) — Linux CA auto-discovery

  • Linux CA auto-discovery. The SDK now finds your distro’s CA bundle automatically on Linux — self-hosted auth (AsyncBithuman.create()) works zero-config on Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE, and Alpine-glibc layouts. The /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt symlink workaround needed on ≤ 2.3.3 is obsolete. Thanks to the customer report that pinned down the Debian/Ubuntu Problem with the SSL CA cert failure.
  • Env-var override preserved. CURL_CA_BUNDLE / SSL_CERT_FILE take precedence over auto-discovery when set — a stale or wrong value will still break auth, so unset them unless they point at a valid bundle.
  • macOS wheel tags. The 2.3.4 macOS wheels are tagged for macOS 26+ (arm64). On older macOS, pip reports No matching distribution found — see the Python SDK page for options.

May 2026

2.3.0 (2026-05-28) — layered architecture + PyPI wheel split

  • PyPI wheel split. pip install bithuman is now the Python SDK library only (~5 MB) — from bithuman import AsyncBithuman still works. The bitHuman CLI moved to the sibling bithuman-cli wheel; install via pip install bithuman-cli, brew install bithuman-product/bithuman/bithuman-cli (the old bithuman formula keeps working as a deprecated alias), or the universal curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bithuman-product/homebrew-bithuman/main/install.sh | sh installer — all three deliver the same Rust binary that prints libessence 1.19.1 ABI 7 / bithuman 2.3.0 on bithuman --version.
  • CLI surface trimmed. The binary now exposes exactly six runtime subcommands: run, render, info, pull, list, doctor (plus init for scaffolding a new project — seven in total). Legacy 1.x verbs (voice, text, avatar, stream, speak, action, generate, asr, tts, models pull|list, cleanup) were removed during the 2.x line and stay removed.
  • Wheel matrix. The Python library bithuman ships on PyPI for macOS arm64 and Linux x86_64 + aarch64 (manylinux). The CLI wheel bithuman-cli is macOS Apple Silicon only on PyPI — on Linux, install the CLI via the universal install.sh / tarball, not pip. Python 3.10–3.14. (Latest patches: bithuman 2.3.4, bithuman-cli 2.3.25.)
  • Four-repo architecture. Engine, SDKs, and apps are now cleanly separated across two private repos and two public ones: bithuman-sdk (private) holds the libessence engine + Python / Swift / Kotlin / Rust SDKs + the parity/ contract tests; bithuman-apps (private) holds the bitHuman CLI, the Flutter plugin, and the Expression reference apps; bithuman-sdk-public (public) is the docs source + examples + landing pages; homebrew-bithuman (public) is the tap + the universal install.sh + the tarball release mirror.
  • BITHUMAN_BRAIN_* → BITHUMAN_AGENT_* env-var rename (carried through from Wave 5 of the 2.x line): BITHUMAN_AGENT_PORT, BITHUMAN_AGENT_PYTHON, BITHUMAN_AGENT_SCRIPT. The old BITHUMAN_BRAIN_* names are still read with a deprecation warning.
  • No external API breaks. Python (from bithuman import AsyncBithuman), Swift (import Bithuman), and Kotlin (ai.bithuman:sdk) public APIs are unchanged from 2.2.x. Migration for existing pip install bithuman && bithuman run users is install-time only: pip install bithuman-cli (or brew install bithuman-product/bithuman/bithuman-cli) to keep the bithuman console-script.
  • Engine ABI bumps to v7 (libessence 1.19.1) — adds be_runtime_tick_compose_from_mel (compose a tick directly from a mel feed). Additive on top of v6; old SDK builds keep working. (be_set_default_audio_encoder is an additive, ABI-unchanged entry point and did not bump the ABI.)
  • LiveKit integration. The upstream pin-relaxation PR (livekit/agents#5882) is open against livekit-plugins-bithuman; once merged the plugin will accept bithuman>=2.3 directly. Until then, install the plugin alongside the library: pip install bithuman livekit-plugins-bithuman.
  • Removed surfaces. The bithuman.utils and bithuman.audio Python modules are gone from the slim 2.3.0 wheel (helpers are inlined into the examples). Elevate was removed from the cloud model family but is retained as the on-device engine (vendored libelevate, used by AvatarUIKit and the expression/iphone sample app) — it was not deleted from the platform.

Python SDK bithuman 2.2.2 (2026-05-25) — Linux CLI tarballs restored

  • CI-only cleanup release; no API / runtime changes. Same Python wheel content as 2.2.1.
  • Linux CLI tarballs (bithuman-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz and bithuman-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz) ship on the GitHub Release again — they had been missing since 2.0.1 because of two container-build blockers, both now fixed in main.
  • Pin bithuman==2.2.2 if you want pip install AND the standalone Linux CLI binary from the same tag; ==2.2.1 is fine for wheel-only consumers.

Python SDK bithuman 2.2.1 (2026-05-25) — bithuman-cli[local] extra

Note 2.2.0 was tagged the day before but never published — PyPI rejected uploads with a bare 400 Bad Request. 2.2.1 has identical source content plus a verbose-twine workflow tweak that surfaced the real cause: the bithuman project had reached its 10 GB PyPI storage cap. Deleting 6 superseded releases freed ~8.6 GB and unblocked the ship.

  • New pip install 'bithuman-cli[local]' extra adds a fully on-device conversation brain to bithuman run. Flip it on with BITHUMAN_LOCAL=1; no API key required, no outbound network.
  • Stack: whisper.cpp (STT) + llama.cpp (LLM, default Qwen 2.5 0.5B-Instruct Q4_K_M) + Supertonic 3 (TTS, 31 languages, voice M1 default) + Silero VAD. All in-process — no Ollama or other server.
  • All three backends have first-party iOS + Android C++ cores, so the same .gguf / .bin / .onnx model files are reusable when porting to mobile.
  • New plugins live in livekit.plugins.bithuman.{WhisperSTT, LlamaCppLLM, SupertonicTTS} alongside AvatarSession. The avatar-only install path is unchanged (heavy deps are lazy-imported).
  • Tuning via env vars: BITHUMAN_LOCAL_WHISPER, BITHUMAN_LOCAL_LLM, BITHUMAN_LOCAL_LLM_FILE, BITHUMAN_LOCAL_VOICE, BITHUMAN_LOCAL_LANG, BITHUMAN_INSTRUCTIONS. See Python SDK.
  • Footprint: ~860 MB on disk (auto-downloaded from HuggingFace on first run), ~1.5 GB RAM, ~717 ms warm load, ~1.4 s warm end-to-end on Apple Silicon.
  • Cloud path (BITHUMAN_LOCAL unset, OPENAI_API_KEY set) is byte-for-byte unchanged.

Python SDK bithuman 2.1.0 (2026-05-24) — figure → avatar

  • Retired legacy “figure” terminology. CLI flag --figures-root is now --avatars-root (old name kept as a deprecated alias). Default cache moved from ~/.cache/bithuman/figures to ~/.cache/bithuman/avatars.
  • No runtime behavior change; alignment with the public-facing “avatar” product term.

Python SDK bithuman 2.0.2 (2026-05-24) — graceful drain

  • bithuman run now cancels active sessions and waits up to 2 s for libessence/HDF5 teardown before the process unwinds. Eliminates the H5F.c: decrementing file ID failed + exit 134 SIGABRT on Ctrl-C / LaunchDaemon stop. Required for production-style supervisors.

Python SDK bithuman 2.0.1 (2026-05-24)

  • AsyncBithuman.cleanup is now async — await b.cleanup() works (was raising TypeError and segfaulting at interpreter shutdown).
  • CLI error message polish: bithuman pull <bad-slug> and bithuman render no longer reference renamed subcommands.
  • essence-render --help shows the correct prog name (was bithuman).

Python SDK bithuman 2.0.0 (2026-05-22) — bundled-CLI release

  • pip install bithuman now ships a bithuman console-script that runs the full talk-to-your-avatar stack (Rust CLI + embedded livekit-server + agent-worker brain + browser UI). One install, one command, one URL — same Rust binary as the Homebrew CLI.
  • The runtime library API (import bithuman, AsyncBithuman, from bithuman import Avatar) is unchanged — existing library consumers keep working.
  • The legacy 1.x Python CLI is preserved as the essence-render console-script.
  • Wheels: macOS arm64, Linux x86_64, Linux aarch64. Python 3.10+.
  • Quickstart: pip install bithuman && bithuman run — see the quickstart for the full flow.

v1.18.5 (2026-05-18)

  • Unified bithuman: one pip install bithuman = full prior 1.11.3 API + native engine, 100% backward-compatible (==1.11.3 code runs unchanged).
  • Native engine: far faster cold load + lower memory than pure-Python, exact output parity. Loads fresh console .imx TAR exports natively.
  • Python 3.9–3.14 (Linux x86_64/ARM64, macOS Apple Silicon). Pin >=1.18.5 (1.18.0–1.18.4 predate the unification; Windows / macOS-Intel stay on ==1.11.3).

v1.17.x (2026-05-14)

  • bithuman avatar --openai — workstation Realtime, browser-rendered avatar.
  • voice / text auto-pick cloud vs --local; explicit flags override.
  • Interactive TUI for voice (mic/bot meters + transcript); BITHUMAN_NO_TUI=1 opts out.
  • Flutter plugin renamed bithuman_avatar → bithuman (one Dart codebase, mac/iOS/Android).
  • Canonical OpenAI Realtime path is now the Rust CLI’s --openai mode.

v1.16.0 (2026-05-14)

  • Streaming API on Swift (pushAudio/frames()/resetStream()) and Kotlin (pushAudio/pullFrame/ticksAvailable/resetStream()). Flat per-tick cost on long sessions.
  • Default Realtime model: gpt-realtime-mini.

v1.12.0 (2026-05-12)

  • First unified release: Python, Swift, Kotlin, CLI from one source, identical output.
  • Maven Central first publish (ai.bithuman:sdk, arm64-v8a, minSdk 29).
  • Linux + Windows Python wheels (no WSL).

April 2026

  • Chat Widget v5 — text/voice/video in one floating widget; themes, FAB styles, JS API (open/close/setTheme/destroy).
  • FAQ KB — search always runs; removed dedup that dropped valid results.
  • Voice — Siri-style animation; multilingual TTS (+11 languages including Thai, Chinese, and Arabic).
  • Streaming — instant text to UI without waiting for audio sync.

March 2026

  • Platform UI — sidebar (Explore / Library / Billing / Developer); Explore replaces Community, Library replaces My Agents; credit balance in top nav.
  • Docs — screenshots + navigation refreshed for the new UI.

February 2026

  • Expression Avatar v2 — 24% faster pipeline; no concurrent-session artifacts.
  • Self-hosted GPU container — up to 8 sessions/GPU; ~50 s cold / 4–6 s warm; ~5 GB weights auto-cached.
  • Examples overhaul — fixed Compose env_file; standardized .env.example; added AGENTS.md, llms.txt, OpenAPI spec.
  • REST API — /v1/agent/{code}/speak, /v1/agent/{code}/add-context; consistent error codes.
  • SDK — livekit-plugins-bithuman Expression support; bithuman.AvatarSession unified cloud/CPU/GPU; animal mode for Essence.

January 2026

  • Essence Avatar — CPU-only .imx rendering, 25 FPS, Linux / macOS / Windows.
  • Platform API — agent generation, CRUD, file upload, dynamics/gestures.
  • Integrations — LiveKit cloud plugin, iframe embed (JWT), webhooks, Flutter example.

Note Feature requests and bugs: GitHub and Discord. See the full community guide.