ITK 5.4.5 Released

We are pleased to announce the release of ITK 5.4.5!

ITK 5.4.5 is maintenance release focused on critical bug fixes, improved documentation, and platform support, while introducing AI agent onboarding to assist in project maintenance tasks 🤖. This is the latest maintenance update for this cross-platform, open-source toolkit supporting N-dimensional scientific image analysis with spatially-aware algorithms. 🥳

🔦 Highlights

• Bug Fixes:
  • Resolved issues with zero-sized CompositeTransforms and out-of-bounds access in GDCM, addressing possible security vulnerabilities.
  • Addressed bugs in imread with single-element lists and added corresponding tests to reinforce image IO reliability.
• Documentation:
  • AnatomicalOrientation was backported along with usage guidance.
  • Minor corrections including spelling, removal of legacy documentation, and updates to shared guides.
  • The AGENTS.md file was introduced to onboard AI agents, outlining project structure and contribution guidelines.
• Platform Support:
  • Improved testing for macOS-15 (Intel), updates for Python Xcode 16.2
  • Support for building with newer system Eigen3

🤖 AI Agent Onboarding

A key development in this release is the formal introduction of AI agents to assistent with maintenance. An AGENTS.md file guides a developer’s agent through ITK’s processes, ensuring contributions follow established community standards. Additionally, GitHub Copilot agent integration is streamlined by including a setup step to install the Pixi package manager, enabling agents to establish reproducible build and test environments quickly– mirroring the workflow of human contributors.

Further details are available in the full announcement on the ITK forum.