# ZenML 0.94.4 - Product: ZenML (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/zenml) - Vendor: ZenML - Date: 2026-05-12 - Version: 0.94.4 - Original notes: https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/releases/tag/0.94.4 - Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/zenml/releases/0.94.4 What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog. Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'. --- - **added** — Add new Databricks step operator to run individual pipeline steps on Databricks - **added** — Support nested dynamic pipelines, allowing one dynamic pipeline to be called from within another - **added** — Add advanced training workload settings to Run:AI step operator including multiple mount types, workload templates, security context settings, port declarations, and parallelism configuration - **added** — Add parent run information display in the dashboard run details view - **changed** — Improve Kubernetes string handling with separate sanitization for DNS-style names and looser label-value rules for metadata - **changed** — Increase maximum allowed size for ZenML secrets stored in SQL secrets store to 64KB - **changed** — Add optional tag settings to Databricks orchestrator to label jobs and cluster resources for cost tracking, ownership, and governance - **fixed** — Fix signal handler registration during step execution to prevent errors when running many sync steps or interrupting pipelines - **fixed** — Fix redundant RBAC permission checks during response model dehydration - **fixed** — Allow step functions to use keyword-only arguments without causing failures - **fixed** — Fix Kubernetes orchestrator step pod configuration by replacing hardcoded lookups with proper settings calls - **fixed** — Improve Kubernetes job failure diagnostics to provide richer diagnostic information when dynamic pipeline jobs fail due to system issues ###### New Databricks Step Operator You can now run individual pipeline steps on Databricks using the new **Databricks step operator** [PR #4648](https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/pull/4648). This is useful when you want specific steps to execute in the Databricks runtime while the rest of your pipeline uses a different orchestrator. The Databricks orchestrator also now supports optional tag settings to label jobs and cluster resources for cost tracking, ownership, and governance. ###### Nested Dynamic Pipelines Dynamic pipelines can now be nested, allowing you to call one dynamic pipeline from within another [PR #4775](https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/pull/4775). This enables more modular and reusable pipeline designs. ###### Enhanced Run:AI Training Workload Configuration The Run:AI step operator now supports advanced training workload settings [PR #4780](https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/pull/4780), including: - Multiple mount types (PVC, ConfigMap, Secret, NFS, S3, HostPath) - Workload templates via `workload_template_id` - Security context settings (UID/GID, non-root execution, seccomp, capabilities) - Port declarations and external URL exposure - Training workload `parallelism` and `completions` ###### Improved Kubernetes Job Failure Diagnostics When dynamic pipeline jobs fail due to system issues (such as OOM kills), ZenML now provides richer diagnostic information [PR #4800](https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/pull/4800). This makes it easier to understand why Kubernetes terminated your pods. ###### Better Kubernetes Label Handling Kubernetes string handling has been improved with separate sanitization for DNS-style names/keys and looser label-value rules for metadata like run, pipeline, and step IDs [PR #4756](https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/pull/4756). This makes it easier to navigate through runs in Kubernetes. ###### Increased Secret Size Limit The maximum allowed size for ZenML secrets stored in the SQL secrets store has been increased to 64KB [PR #4769](https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/pull/4769). The limit applies to the combined size of all keys and values in a secret object. ###### Dashboard: Parent Run Display The dashboard now displays parent run information in the run details view when available [PR #1050](https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml-dashboard/pull/1050).
Fixed - **Signal handling during step execution**: Signal handlers are now properly unregistered after step execution, preventing strange errors when running many sync steps or interrupting pipelines [PR #4784](https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/pull/4784). Dynamic pipeline steps running in isolated environments or step operators are no longer affected by signal handling from the orchestrator. - **RBAC performance**: Fixed redundant RBAC permission checks during response model dehydration [PR #4797](https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/pull/4797). Previously, when permissions were already prefetched and denied, additional RBAC requests were sent unnecessarily for each sub-model. - **Keyword-only arguments in steps**: Step functions can now use keyword-only arguments without causing failures [PR #4798](https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/pull/4798). - **Kubernetes orchestrator settings**: Fixed step pod configuration by replacing legacy hardcoded `orchestrator.kubernetes` lookups with proper `orchestrator.get_settings(...)` calls [PR #4803](https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/pull/4803). Step pods now correctly apply orchestrator settings from canonical component keys while maintaining backward compatibility.
##### What's Changed * Add version 0.94.2 to legacy docs by @github-actions[bot] in https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/pull/4766 * Add 0.94.3 to the migration tests by @github-actions[bot] in https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/pull/4768 * Revise Run:AI service account setup and troubleshoo _[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/releases/tag/0.94.4]_