ultralytics 8.4.55

v8.4.55 - `ultralytics 8.4.55` Accept onnxruntime variants in ONNX export requirements check (#24611)

on Python PyPI

🌟 Summary

Ultralytics v8.4.55 is a reliability-focused release that mainly fixes ONNX/QNN export environments so existing onnxruntime variants are no longer accidentally overwritten, while also improving deployment docs, especially for Hailo and YOLO26 task support 🚀

📊 Key Changes

• 🛠️ Major export fix for ONNX/QNN environments

  • The most important change in this release is a fix in ONNX export dependency checking by @glenn-jocher.
  • Ultralytics now properly accepts alternative onnxruntime package variants such as:
    • onnxruntime-qnn
    • onnxruntime-directml
    • onnxruntime-openvino
    • onnxruntime-training
  • Previously, export checks could mistakenly think ONNX Runtime was missing and auto-install standard onnxruntime, which could overwrite specialized builds and break export or inference.

• 📦 Safer QNN export workflows

  • This especially helps users exporting for Qualcomm QNN.
  • It prevents ABI/provider conflicts that could cause failures during QNN-related ONNX export steps.

• 📘 New Hailo deployment guide

  • Added a detailed new guide for deploying Ultralytics YOLO models to Hailo hardware through an ONNX-to-HEF workflow.
  • The docs explain that Hailo is not a direct model.export() target, but can still be used through the external Hailo toolchain.

• 🧠 Broader and clearer YOLO26 task documentation

  • Many docs were updated to better distinguish:
    • instance segmentation
    • semantic segmentation
  • YOLO26 support tables, CLI docs, platform docs, and integration pages now more clearly reflect that semantic segmentation is supported.

• ⚡ Faster and more stable CI testing

  • Test infrastructure now uses parallel pytest runs with pytest-xdist.
  • Shared test assets are cached in advance, and test outputs are isolated to avoid conflicts.
  • This should help improve release quality and reduce flaky test failures.

• 📈 Improved Comet documentation

  • Added missing COMET_* environment variable docs and clarified online/offline logging behavior.

• 🔄 Minor maintenance updates

  • GitHub Actions cache was updated from actions/cache@v4 to @v5.
  • Small wording and docstring cleanups were made across the project.

🎯 Purpose & Impact

• ✅ More reliable exports for advanced runtimes

  • If you use specialized ONNX Runtime builds, this release is important.
  • It reduces the risk of Ultralytics auto-installing the wrong package and breaking your setup.

• 📱 Better support for edge and hardware-specific deployment

  • QNN users should see fewer export-related environment issues.
  • Hailo users now have clearer guidance for getting YOLO models onto supported devices.

• 🧩 Less confusion around segmentation tasks

  • The docs now do a better job of explaining the difference between instance segmentation and semantic segmentation, which is especially helpful for newer users.

• 🛡️ Better overall stability

  • Faster and better-isolated test pipelines should help catch regressions earlier and improve release reliability for everyone.

• 🌍 Easier adoption of YOLO26 capabilities

  • The documentation now more consistently highlights that YOLO26 supports six task types, including semantic segmentation, making the platform easier to understand and use.

In short: v8.4.55 is mainly a stability and compatibility release 🔧—especially valuable for users exporting to ONNX/QNN or working with specialized runtime builds—while also making deployment and YOLO26 task support clearer for the broader community.

What's Changed

• Update semantic task support docs by @glenn-jocher in #24597
• Enable parallel CI tests via pytest-xdist and fix export/train race conditions by @Laughing-q in #24565
• Document missing COMET_* environment variables by @raimbekovm in #24600
• Hailo export guide by @ambitious-octopus in #24596
• Bump actions/cache from v4 to v5 in /.github/workflows by @UltralyticsAssistant in #24604
• ultralytics 8.4.55 Accept onnxruntime variants in ONNX export requirements check by @glenn-jocher in #24611

Full Changelog: v8.4.54...v8.4.55