ReactiveMP.jl: a Julia package for automatic Bayesian inference on a factor graph with reactive message passing.

ReactiveMP v6.0.0

Diff since v5.6.6

This is a major change in ReactiveMP that includes breaking changes, improvements, new documentation sections and many more!

Added

• AbstractStreamPostprocessor abstraction unifying the old pipeline stages and the per-node scheduler argument under a single concept that postprocesses outbound message streams, marginal streams, and score streams uniformly
• postprocess_stream_of_outbound_messages, postprocess_stream_of_marginals, postprocess_stream_of_scores entry points with ::Nothing pass-through fallbacks
• CompositeStreamPostprocessor for chaining multiple postprocessors
• ScheduleOnStreamPostprocessor — direct successor of ScheduleOnPipelineStage plus the per-node scheduler, applies a Rocket.jl scheduler to all three stream kinds
• Marginal streams and score streams now go through stream postprocessors (previously only outbound message streams did)
• Documentation page for stream postprocessors
• Callback/event system for hooking into message passing steps (rule calls, message products, form constraints, marginal computation)
• MessageProductContext struct to bundle product computation settings and callbacks
• Labels for variables (RandomVariable, ConstVariable, DataVariable)
• Docstrings for variable types, form constraints, and related functions
• Documentation page for callbacks
• MethodError hint for mismatched handle_event signatures
• New annotations system: AnnotationDict, AbstractAnnotations, LogScaleAnnotations, InputArgumentsAnnotations
• post_rule_annotations! and post_product_annotations! callbacks for annotation processors
• @logscale value macro for setting log-scale annotations inside @rule bodies
• getannotations function for Message and Marginal
• Migration guide for v5 to v6
• skip_initial(), skip_clamped(), skip_clamped_and_initial() filter operators replacing the MarginalSkipStrategy type hierarchy
• new_observation!(datavar, value) for pushing observed values into a DataVariable
• get_stream_of_inbound_messages, get_stream_of_outbound_messages accessors on NodeInterface and IndexedNodeInterface
• get_stream_of_marginals, set_stream_of_marginals! accessors on variables
• get_stream_of_predictions, set_stream_of_predictions! accessors on variables
• set_initial_marginal!, set_initial_message! for seeding variables before inference
• create_new_stream_of_inbound_messages! for allocating per-connection message streams
• Docstrings for MessageObservable, MarginalObservable, FunctionalDependencies, collect_functional_dependencies, RandomVariableActivationOptions, DataVariableActivationOptions, FactorNodeActivationOptions, and activate! methods
• Expanded documentation for variables (stream creation lifecycle per variable type), nodes (interfaces, activation), messages, and marginals

Changed

• FactorNodeActivationOptions lost its pipeline and scheduler positional fields and gained a single postprocessor field
• RandomVariableActivationOptions renamed its scheduler field to stream_postprocessor; the default is now nothing (no-op) instead of AsapScheduler()
• getpipeline(options) and getscheduler(options) replaced by getpostprocessor(options)
• EqualityChain renamed its pipeline field to postprocessor
• Switched from ReTestItems to TestItemRunner for tests (#584)
• Made formatting checks stricter
• Removed variables/generic.jl; generic variable interface moved into variable.jl
• Replaced hardcoded DefaultMessageProdFn/DefaultMarginalProdFn with MessageProductContext
• Message{D, A} → Message{D} (type parameter A removed)
• Marginal{D, A} → Marginal{D} (type parameter A removed)
• Message and Marginal now carry an AnnotationDict instead of a typed addons tuple
• Rules no longer return (result, addons) tuples — just the result
• @call_rule no longer supports return_addons option; use annotations keyword with AnnotationDict
• MessageMapping.addons field → MessageMapping.annotations
• MessageProductContext gained annotations field for product-time annotation processors
• messagein(interface) → get_stream_of_inbound_messages(interface)
• messageout(interface) → get_stream_of_outbound_messages(interface)
• getmarginal(variable) / getmarginals → get_stream_of_marginals(variable)
• getprediction(variable) / getpredictions → get_stream_of_predictions(variable)
• setmarginal!(variable, value) → set_initial_marginal!(variable, value)
• setmessage!(variable, value) → set_initial_message!(variable, value)
• update!(datavar, value) → new_observation!(datavar, value)

Removed

• AbstractPipelineStage, EmptyPipelineStage, CompositePipelineStage, ScheduleOnPipelineStage, apply_pipeline_stage, collect_pipeline, + composition — replaced by the AbstractStreamPostprocessor abstraction (see migration guide)
• LoggerPipelineStage — equivalent behaviour can be implemented via callbacks
• AsyncPipelineStage — use ScheduleOnStreamPostprocessor(AsyncScheduler()) instead
• DiscontinuePipelineStage — was unused; implement a custom AbstractStreamPostprocessor if needed
• schedule_updates(vars; pipeline_stage = ...) — construct a ScheduleOnStreamPostprocessor and pass it through the activation options instead
• getaddons — use getannotations instead
• getlogscale(::Message), getlogscale(::Marginal) — use getlogscale(getannotations(...)) instead
• getmemory, getmemoryaddon — use get_rule_input_arguments(getannotations(...)) instead
• AddonLogScale — replaced by LogScaleAnnotations (calling AddonLogScale() throws a descriptive error)
• AddonMemory — replaced by InputArgumentsAnnotations (calling AddonMemory() throws a descriptive error)
• AddonDebug — use callbacks instead
• AbstractAddon, multiply_addons, @invokeaddon
• message_mapping_addons, message_mapping_addon helper functions
• MarginalSkipStrategy abstract type and SkipClamped, SkipInitial, SkipClampedAndInitial, IncludeAll subtypes — use skip_clamped(), skip_initial(), skip_clamped_and_initial() filter operators instead
• apply_skip_filter, as_marginal_observable — no longer part of the public API
• messagein, messageout — use get_stream_of_inbound_messages, get_stream_of_outbound_messages
• getmarginal, getmarginals, getprediction, getpredictions — use get_stream_of_marginals, get_stream_of_predictions
• setmarginal!, setmarginals!, setmessage!, setmessages! — use set_initial_marginal!, set_initial_message!
• update! — use new_observation!
• create_messagein! — use create_new_stream_of_inbound_messages!

Merged pull requests:

• 🤖 Auto-format Julia code (#583) (@github-actions[bot])
• use TestItemRunner instead of ReTestItems (#584) (@bvdmitri)
• 🤖 Auto-format Julia code (#585) (@github-actions[bot])
• Implement event handler system for message passing and callbacks (#587) (@bvdmitri)
• Trace ID to link before and after events (#589) (@fonsp)
• gitignore agents md (#591) (@fonsp)
• Run make format (#593) (@fonsp)
• Use Base.sprint for rule_tests (#594) (@fonsp)
• Better trace ids (#595) (@bvdmitri)
• Refactor addon system to annotations (#596) (@bvdmitri)
• 🤖 Auto-format Julia code (#597) (@github-actions[bot])
• Release 6 (#600) (@bvdmitri)