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Semantic Kernel

AI-ASSISTANTS
Velocity5.0

Microsoft SDK for integrating large language models into apps with plugins and planning.

learn.microsoft.com/en-us/semantic-kernel ↗

Semantic Kernel's releases are now dependency bumps and redirect READMEs pointing users elsewhere.

ai-orchestrationdotnetpythonmcpvector-storesdependency-maintenance
◆Current state
The .NET and Python packages ship on a steady cadence, but the contents are servicing: SDK and package version bumps, CVE-driven dependency updates, CodeQL suppressions, and HTTP hardening such as disabling automatic redirects in the web plugins. The genuinely functional changes are narrow — a Gemini connector now honoring the configured function choice behavior, an MCP tool approval callback for Azure AI agents shipped as a breaking change, and MCP tools with colliding normalized names being skipped. The latest .NET release removes migrated vector-store providers outright, leaving redirect READMEs behind.
◆Where it's heading
The centre of gravity is moving out of this repository. Vector store providers have migrated to CommunityToolkit packages and their originals are now deleted rather than deprecated, with samples following them across. What remains is maintenance plus the occasional MCP fix, which suggests the agent work that would once have landed here is happening in a different codebase. For teams with Semantic Kernel in production, the signal to read is the removals: each one is a dependency that now resolves somewhere else.
◆Prediction
Expect the cadence to continue as security and dependency servicing with occasional MCP fixes, and for migration tooling or documentation pointing at Microsoft Agent Framework to grow faster than any new capability in Semantic Kernel itself.

◆Recent moves

  1. 1d ago

    SK .NET 1.80: migrated vector-store providers removed

    The migrated .NET vector-store providers are deleted and replaced with redirect READMEs, which turns a soft migration into a hard one for anyone still referencing them. The Gemini connector also starts honoring the configured function choice behavior — a real behavioral fix among the usual version and Testcontainers bumps.

    View source ↗
  2. 13d ago

    SK .NET 1.79: dependency bumps and a Cosmos DB vector store fix

    Mostly SDK and dependency version bumps with a CodeQL suppression, plus one Cosmos DB vector store bug fix. The sample migration to CommunityToolkit packages here previews the provider removal that lands in 1.80.

    View source ↗
  3. 13d ago

    SK Python 1.44.1: breaking MCP tool approval callback

    A breaking change adding an MCP tool approval callback for Azure AI agents, plus skipping MCP tools whose normalized names collide. Both are the kind of fix that only surfaces once agents are calling real tool sets, and they are the most substantive work in this window.

    View source ↗
  4. 1mo ago

    SK .NET 1.78: HTTP redirect hardening and dependency bumps

    Automatic HTTP redirects are disabled in the web and file-download plugin default clients and file path validation is hardened across plugins. Security posture work on the plugin surface, wrapped in the usual dependency updates.

    View source ↗
  5. 1mo ago

    SK Python 1.44.0: dependency bumps only

    An entire release of dependabot upgrades with no functional change. It is the clearest illustration of what the package's release cadence currently consists of.

    View source ↗
  6. 2mo ago

    SK Python 1.43.1: function choice behavior for assistant agents

    Function choice behavior reaches Azure AI and OpenAI assistant agents, closing a gap between agent types, alongside a fix rejecting encoded dot-segment paths in the OpenAPI plugin. Small, but it is capability rather than servicing.

    View source ↗