Autograd v1.9.0

23 June 2026

We are happy to announce the Autograd v1.9.0 release. It brings broader NumPy 2.x and Python compatibility, several gradient correctness fixes, and better integration with array-like containers such as xarray's DataArray.

This release supports both NumPy 1.x and 2.x. Python versions 3.10 through 3.14 are supported. We have dropped support for Python 3.9, which is now end of life (#748).

Features and general enhancements

• Improved integration with NumPy ufuncs and array-like containers, making it possible to differentiate through xarray.DataArrays that hold ArrayBoxes (#717, #716).
• Added a 'same' mode for scipy.signal.convolve, including its forward pass and VJP (#721).

Bug fixes

• np.where now preserves native Python types instead of promoting them to float64 (#779, fixes #671).
• Fixed np.mean, np.std, np.var, and linalg.norm failing when passed a list or tuple containing ArrayBox objects (#757).
• Added the missing VJP for np.astype, which was introduced in NumPy 2.0 (#714).
• Added the missing JVP for np.conjugate (#713).
• Fixed np.absolute gradients so they handle the division-by-zero case the same way np.abs already did (#712).
• Registered np.empty_like and np.full_like as non-differentiable functions so they pass through tracing cleanly (#710).
• Fixed linalg.norm VJP and JVP for complex numbers (#705, fixes #666).

Maintenance

• Adopted PEP 639 for license metadata and dropped the now-redundant license trove classifier (#783, #787).
• Followed PEP 765 (#740).

Miscellaneous

• Security hardening: added a Dependabot config for GitHub Actions, added Zizmor as a CI job, and pinned and updated pre-commit hooks (#785).
• Added exclude-newer = "3 days ago" to guard against supply-chain attacks during dependency resolution (#775).
• Replaced the retired macos-13 CI image with macos-15-intel (#747).
• Removed the outdated in-tree conda package recipe (#784).

Documentation

• Added a tutorial on working with xarray.DataArrays (#782).
• Added an examples section with a matplotlib dependency, and tidied up the existing examples (#756, #720).
• Updated the README and fixed the instructions for running a specific test (#704, #702, #711).

New contributors

• @jeremy-feng made their first contribution in #704
• @danra made their first contribution in #705
• @jvansanten made their first contribution in #720
• @Schefflera-Arboricola made their first contribution in #740
• @joewallwork made their first contribution in #756
• @aaishwarymishra made their first contribution in #777
• @mrityunjai01 made their first contribution in #721
• @tylerflex made their first contribution in #757

Full CHANGELOG: v1.8.0...v1.9.0