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Source: NEWS.md

bbotk (development version)

bbotk 1.13.1

CRAN release: 2026-09-17

  • fix: ArchiveAsync$best() with n_select > 1 no longer reorders the task cache of rush in place, which changed the order of $finished_data and $data for all later calls (#387).
  • fix: ArchiveBatch$add_evals() now checks that xss_trafoed has one element per row of xdt, which silently corrupted the x_domain column before (#366).
  • fix: as.data.table(mlr_optimizers, objects = TRUE) now returns the optimizer in the object column instead of base::t() for all optimizers but "chain" (#368).
  • fix: assert_terminable() now decides whether an instance is single or multi-criteria from the codomain of the objective instead of the class of the instance, so terminators are checked correctly for OptimInstanceAsyncMultiCrit (#375).
  • fix: $assign_result() and $result_y of the multi-criteria instances now only expect and return the target values of the codomain. A codomain with additional non-target parameters made $optimize() fail (#372).
  • fix: assign_result_default() now raises a readable error when the terminator is already terminated before the first evaluation instead of failing with column not found (#377).
  • fix: bb_optimize() now creates a single-criteria instance for a codomain with one target and additional non-target parameters instead of a multi-criteria instance (#373).
  • fix: branin() now adds the noise argument to the function value, which was ignored (#369).
  • fix: context$xdt can now be replaced by assignment in the on_optimizer_before_eval stage of a CallbackBatch, and the replaced points are both evaluated and written to the archive (#374).
  • fix: The C code of local_search() now raises R errors instead of using assert(), which aborted the R session and vanished entirely in a build with -DNDEBUG (#382).
  • fix: local_search() now recognizes the termination condition raised by a terminator. The condition was re-raised and the RNG state was never written back, so all random numbers drawn in the C code were lost (#378).
  • fix: local_search() now writes the RNG state back before it calls the objective, so an objective that draws random numbers no longer receives the numbers the C code consumed for mutation (#379).
  • fix: local_search() now compares parameter names, column names, list element names, and factor levels exactly instead of by prefix. A parameter or level whose name was a prefix of another one aborted the R session or made mutation a silent no-op (#380).
  • fix: nds_selection() now only accepts a minimize argument of length 1 or of the number of objectives, and rejects points with missing values (#365).
  • fix: Objective$eval_many() no longer multiplies the number of rows when the objective returns an extra that is an atomic vector of length greater than one (#367).
  • fix: optimize_async_default() now checks the instance and the properties of the optimizer before the workers are started, so unsupported parameter classes, dependencies, single or multi-criteria mismatches, and missing packages are reported in the main process instead of crashing the workers (#386).
  • fix: optimize_async_default() now stops the workers on every exit path, including errors and interrupts. A failing optimization left the workers running before (#384).
  • fix: OptimizerBatchChain now runs the optimizers on the instance itself instead of on a clone. The terminator of the instance sees all evaluated points, so the overall budget is no longer exceeded, and points that were already evaluated before the chain started are no longer duplicated in the archive (#364).
  • fix: OptimizerBatchIrace now passes the digits parameter to irace instead of always using 15 digits (#362).
  • fix: OptimizerBatchIrace now writes the actual step of a race into the step column of the archive, which was always 1 (#363).
  • fix: OptimizerBatchNLoptr no longer overwrites the maxeval, maxtime, and stopval parameters. The internal termination criteria set by the user are now passed on to nloptr::nloptr() (#361).
  • fix: OptimizerBatchRandomSearch rejects a batch_size smaller than 1, and $eval_batch() errors on an empty xdt unless the search space is empty. opt("random_search", batch_size = 0) looped forever before (#370).
  • fix: options(bbotk.debug = TRUE) no longer hangs when the optimizer returns before the terminator is satisfied, e.g. when the design of OptimizerAsyncDesignPoints is exhausted (#385).
  • fix: $result_y of the single-criteria instances now only returns the target values of the codomain. It errored for a codomain with additional non-target parameters (#371).
  • fix: shrink_ps() now expects the point to shrink around on the scale of the search space instead of the transformed scale, and the uniroot() based inversion of the trafo is removed. OptimizerBatchFocusSearch shrunk the search space around the wrong point whenever the search space had a trafo (#360).
  • fix: TerminatorRunTime now reports an integer number of steps, so a fractional secs value no longer breaks $optimize() when progressr is loaded (#376).

bbotk 1.13.0

CRAN release: 2026-09-02

  • feat: Asynchronous optimizers support the mirai compute profiles set with the profiles argument of rush::rush_plan(), e.g. profiles = c(cpu = 2, gpu = 2) runs 2 workers on the daemons of the "cpu" profile and 2 workers on the daemons of the "gpu" profile. The profile a worker runs on is available as instance$rush$profile.
  • feat: ArchiveAsync$push_points() and ArchiveAsync$push_point() gain the profile argument to queue points for a mirai compute profile. Points queued for a profile are only evaluated by the workers running on that profile, whereas points pushed without a profile are queued in the shared queue and are evaluated by any worker.
  • refactor: nds_selection() now uses moocore::pareto_rank() and moocore::hv_contributions() instead of the emoa package, which is no longer suggested. Boundary points now always survive tie breaking in three or more dimensions, matching the previous behavior in two dimensions.
  • refactor: OptimizerBatchCmaes now calls libcmaesr::cmaes() instead of adagio::pureCMAES(), which is no longer suggested. The optimizer gains the algo, lambda, max_restarts, elitism, tpa, tpa_dsigma, seed, f_tolerance, x_tolerance, x0_lower, and x0_upper parameters, and evaluates a whole generation of lambda points per batch. The sigma parameter no longer defaults to 0.5 but is handled by libcmaes.

bbotk 1.12.0

CRAN release: 2026-07-17

  • refactor: Remove the deprecated extra argument from ArchiveAsync’s $push_points(), $push_point(), $push_running_points(), $push_running_point(), $finish_points(), and $finish_point(). Use the corresponding xss_extra, xs_extra, or yss_extra, ys_extra argument instead.

bbotk 1.11.0

CRAN release: 2026-06-26

  • fix: Asynchronous optimization no longer calls the deprecated rush$fail_tasks() method when cleaning up after termination. Queued tasks are now removed with rush$empty_queue() and running tasks are left to the workers that own them.
  • feat: ArchiveAsync gains additional methods wrapping the rush task API: $push_point(), $push_running_points(), $push_finished_point(), $push_finished_points(), $push_failed_points(), $finish_point(), $finish_points(), $fail_point(), and $fail_points().
  • feat: ArchiveAsync$push_failed_point() now creates a new failed point in the archive instead of moving a running point to the failed points; use $fail_point() to move a running point to the failed points.
  • refactor: ArchiveAsync$push_result() is deprecated, use $finish_point() instead.

bbotk 1.10.1

CRAN release: 2026-06-13

bbotk 1.10.0

CRAN release: 2026-04-08

  • chore: Minimum required version of rush is now 1.0.0. Removed all compatibility workarounds for older versions.
  • fix: Remove non-API C entry points that caused CRAN warnings (#332).
  • feat: Add mlr_test_functions dictionary with well-known 2-D optimization test functions (Branin, Rosenbrock, Himmelblau, Rastrigin, etc.) and sugar functions otfun() / otfuns().

bbotk 1.9.0

CRAN release: 2026-02-28

  • feat: Allow "learn" tag (direction=0) alongside minimize/maximize in Codomain.
  • feat: Add new base class EvalInstance from which OptimInstance now inherits. EvalInstance keeps information about a process that evaluates an Objective while not necessarily optimizing it.
  • feat: Exporting formerly internal choose_search_space() function.
  • feat: Use mlr3misc error classes for errors and warnings.
  • compatibility: Compatible with rush 1.0.0.
  • fix: Terminator print method works correctly now.

bbotk 1.8.1

CRAN release: 2025-11-26

  • fix: Any Conditions work with OptimizerLocalSearch now.

bbotk 1.8.0

CRAN release: 2025-11-06

  • feat: Add on_optimizer_queue_before_eval and on_optimizer_queue_after_eval stages to CallbackAsync and CallbackBatch.
  • fix: Start phase of rush worker.

bbotk 1.7.1

CRAN release: 2025-10-24

fix: Imbalanced protection and casting in C code. fix: Load required packages in worker loop.

bbotk 1.7.0

CRAN release: 2025-10-10

  • BREAKING CHANGE: Replace OptimizerBatchLocalSearch with a faster C implementation.
  • feat: Add par parameter to OptimizerGenSA.
  • BREAKING CHANGE: Replace start parameter from OptimizerNloptr with x0 parameter.
  • feat: Expose internal termination criteria of Optimizers.
  • feat: Store required packages in Objective$packages.
  • feat: Fail queued and running points when optimization is terminated.
  • fix: Pass n_workers to rush.
  • feat: Kill rush worker after optimization.
  • feat: Add tiny logging mode.

bbotk 1.6.0

CRAN release: 2025-06-03

  • BREAKING CHANGE: The mlr3 ecosystem has a base logger now which is named mlr3. The mlr3/bbotk logger is a child of the mlr3 logger and is used for logging messages from the bbotk and mlr3tuning package.
  • feat: Classes are now printed with the cli package.
  • fix: Prevent switching of xss and constants.
  • fix: Add safeguard on OptimizerNloptr bounds.
  • feat: Allow numerical gradient approximation in OptimizerNloptr.

bbotk 1.5.0

CRAN release: 2024-12-17

  • compatibility: irace 4.1.0
  • compatibility: rush 0.2.0
  • refactor: Replace Codomain$maximization_to_minimization with $direction field.
  • feat: Save ArchiveAsync to a data.table with ArchiveAsyncFrozen.

bbotk 1.4.1

CRAN release: 2024-11-27

  • compatibility: irace 4.0.0

bbotk 1.4.0

CRAN release: 2024-11-26

  • feat: Add OptimizerBatchChain that runs multiple optimizers sequentially.
  • refactor: Only pass extra to $assign_result().

bbotk 1.3.0

CRAN release: 2024-11-07

  • feat: Add new stage on_result_begin to CallbackAsyncTuning and CallbackBatchTuning.
  • refactor: Rename stage on_result to on_result_end in CallbackAsyncTuning and CallbackBatchTuning.
  • docs: Extend the CallbackAsyncTuning and CallbackBatchTuning documentation.

bbotk 1.2.0

CRAN release: 2024-10-25

  • feat: ContextBatch and ContextAsync have a result_extra field now to access additional results passed to the instance.
  • refactor: Additional information are passed with extra to OptimInstance$assign_result().

bbotk 1.1.1

CRAN release: 2024-10-15

  • feat: The optimizers passes additional information to OptimInstance$assign_result() method.

bbotk 1.1.0

CRAN release: 2024-09-09

  • docs: Move vignette to mlr3book.
  • feat: Add hypervolume stagnation terminator trm("stagnation_hypervolume").
  • feat Add local search optimizer opt("local_search").
  • refactor: Remove unused fields from callbacks.
  • fix: Add "on_optimization_end_batch" stage to CallbackBatch.

bbotk 1.0.1

CRAN release: 2024-07-24

  • refactor: extra columns in results.

bbotk 1.0.0

CRAN release: 2024-06-28

  • feat: Introduce asynchronous optimization with the OptimizerAsync and OptimInstanceAsync classes.
  • BREAKING CHANGE: The Optimizer class is OptimizerBatch now.
  • BREAKING CHANGE: The OptimInstance class and subclasses are OptimInstanceBatch* now.
  • BREAKING CHANGE: The CallbackOptimization class is CallbackBatch now.
  • BREAKING CHANGE: The ContextOptimization class is ContextBatch now.
  • BREAKING CHANGE: Remove ArchiveBest class and keep_evals parameter from OptimInstance.

bbotk 0.8.0

CRAN release: 2024-02-29

  • fix: OptimizerIrace failed with logical parameters and dependencies.
  • refactor: Optimize the runtime of archive$best() method and add ties method.
  • compatibility: Work with new paradox version 1.0.0

bbotk 0.7.3

CRAN release: 2023-11-13

  • fix: OptimInstance$print() errored when the search space was empty.

bbotk 0.7.2

CRAN release: 2022-12-08

  • fix: Standalone Tuner and FSelector were rejected by ContextBatch.

bbotk 0.7.1

CRAN release: 2022-11-30

  • feat: Data unrelated to a specific point evaluation can be written to Archive$data_extra.

bbotk 0.7.0

CRAN release: 2022-11-05

  • fix: Terminator$format(with_params = TRUE) printed an empty list when no parameter was set.
  • refactor: OptimizerIrace automatically added the instances parameter to Objective$constants. From now on, the instances parameter can be also set manually.
  • BREAKING CHANGE: branin(xs) is now branin(x1, x2, noise) and branin_wu(x1, x2, fidelity).
  • feat: Add ObjectiveRFunMany that can evaluate a list of configurations with a user supplied function.
  • fix: If all configurations were missing a parameter, ObjectiveRFunDt$eval_many() did not create a column with NA for the missing parameter.
  • refactor: The default of digits in OptimizerIrace is 15 now to avoid rounding errors.
  • refactor: The bounds of double parameters were processed with only 4 decimal places in OptimizerIrace. By default, the bounds of double parameters are represented with 15 decimal places now. The digits parameter of OptimizerIrace also changes number of decimal places of the bounds now.

bbotk 0.6.0

CRAN release: 2022-10-25

  • fix: OptimizerIrace did not work with parameters with multiple dependencies.
  • feat: Add new callback that backups the archive to disk to mlr_callbacks.
  • feat: Create custom callbacks with the callback_batch() function.

bbotk 0.5.4

CRAN release: 2022-08-25

  • feat: Add OptimizerFocusSearch that performs a focusing random search.

bbotk 0.5.3

CRAN release: 2022-05-04

  • feat: Optimizer and Terminator objects have the field $id now.

bbotk 0.5.2

CRAN release: 2022-04-04

  • refactor: The $print() method of OptimInstance omits unnecessary columns now.
  • fix: The $clear() method of OptimInstance raised an error.
  • fix: The $clear() method of Archive missed to reset the $start_time field.
  • feat: Optimizer and Terminator objects have the optional field $label now.
  • feat: as.data.table() functions for objects of class Dictionary have been extended with additional columns.
  • feat: Add a as.data.table.DictionaryTerminator() function.

bbotk 0.5.1

CRAN release: 2022-02-25

  • fix: The return of the $.status() method of TerminatorRunTime and TerminatorClockTime was not in a consistent unit. The return is in seconds from now on.
  • fix: The number of evaluations was recorded as 0 in the log messages when the search space was empty.
  • feat: Add a as.data.table.DictionaryOptimizer() function.
  • feat: New $help() method which opens the manual page of an Optimizer.

bbotk 0.5.0

CRAN release: 2022-01-19

  • feat: Add $nds_selection() method to Archive.
  • feat: New Codomain class that allows extra parameters.
  • refactor: Objective values were automatically named. From now on, only unnamed returns of ObjectiveRFun are named.
  • fix: OptimInstance, Archive and Objective objects were not cloned properly.
  • refactor: The fields $param_classes, $properties and $packages of Optimizer objects are read-only now.
  • feat: The branin() function is exported now.

bbotk 0.4.0

CRAN release: 2021-09-13

  • feat: The search space and domain can now be empty.
  • feat: The budget of TerminatorEvals can now be changed depending on the dimension of the search space with the parameter k.
  • feat: Add bb_optimize() function.
  • feat: Add OptimizerIrace which calls irace::irace from the irace package.

bbotk 0.3.2

CRAN release: 2021-03-18

  • refactor: Internal changes.

bbotk 0.3.1

CRAN release: 2021-03-12

  • feat: Add $clear() method to OptimInstance to reset the instance.
  • refactor: Prettier $print() methods.
  • feat: Assertions on overlapping and reserved names in domain and codomain.

bbotk 0.3.0

CRAN release: 2021-01-23

  • feat: The check of points and results can now be disables with the check_values flag in OptimInstance, OptimInstanceSingleCrit, OptimInstanceMultiCrit, ObjectiveRFun and ObjectiveRFunDt.
  • refactor: The data.table within the Archive can now be accessed with $data.
  • refactor: The m parameter of Archive$best() is renamed to batch.
  • feat: New ArchiveBest class which only stores best scoring evaluation instead of all evaluations
  • refactor: The runtime is reduced when ObjectiveRFunDt is used with a domain without trafo.
  • fix: Add support for ParamUty in OptimizerDesignPoints.
  • feat: The start points for OptimizerCmaes and OptimizerNloptr can now be randomly created or from center of the search space.
  • feat: The $optimize() method supports progress bars via the package progressr.

bbotk 0.2.2

CRAN release: 2020-10-08

  • refactor: Remove dependency on orphaned package bibtex.
  • feat: Add OptimizerCmaes which calls adagio::pureCMAES from the adagio package.

bbotk 0.2.1

CRAN release: 2020-09-05

  • refactor: Compact in-memory representation of R6 objects to save space when saving mlr3 objects via saveRDS(), serialize() etc.
  • refactor: Warning and error messages when upstream package of Optimizer is not installed.

bbotk 0.2

  • First version of the Black-Box Optimization Toolkit