paul-buerkner/brms v2.15.0 on GitHub

New Features

Turn off normalization in the Stan model via argument normalize to increase sampling efficiency thanks to Andrew Johnson. (#1017, #1053)
Enable posterior_predict for truncated continuous models even if the required CDF or quantile functions are unavailable.
Update and export validate_prior to validate priors supplied by the user.
Add support for within-chain threading with rstan (Stan >= 2.25) backend.
Apply the R2-D2 shrinkage prior to population-level coefficients via function R2D2 to be used in set_prior.
Extend support for arma correlation structures in non-normal families.
Extend scope of variables passed via data2 for use in the evaluation of most model terms.
Refit models previously stored on disc only when necessary thanks to Martin Modrak. The behavior can be controlled via file_refit. (#1058)
Allow for a finer tuning of informational messages printed in brm via the silent argument. (#1076)
Allow stanvars to alter distributional parameters. (#1061)
Allow stanvars to be used inside threaded likelihoods. (#1111)

Improve numerical stability of ordinal sequential models (families sratio and cratio) thanks to Andrew Johnson. (#1087)

Allow fitting multinomial models with the cmdstanr backend thanks to Andrew Johnson. (#1033)
Allow user-defined Stan functions in threaded models. (#1034)
Allow usage of the : operator in autocorrelation terms.
Fix Stan code generation when specifying coefficient-level priors on spline terms.
Fix numerical issues occurring in edge cases during post-processing of Gaussian processes thanks to Marta Kołczyńska.
Fix an error during post-processing of new levels in multi-membership terms thanks to Guilherme Mohor.
Fix a bug in the Stan code of threaded wiener drift diffusion models thanks to the GitHub user yanivabir. (#1085)
Fix a bug in the threaded Stan code for GPs with categorical by variables thanks to Reece Willoughby. (#1081)
Fix a bug in the threaded Stan code when using QR decomposition thanks to Steve Bronder. (#1086)
Include offsets in emmeans related methods thanks to Russell V. Lenth. (#1096)