Release Notes: Improved SDK Jupyter Notebook Getting Started Experience

We are happy to announce a refresh of our SDK Jupyter notebooks to enhance the getting started experience for our users. Below are the key updates and improvements:

Clearer Directions and Configuration

Enhanced Instructions

• Getting Started: We have revamped the directions for getting started with our notebooks, providing clearer, step-by-step guidance.
• Kernel Configuration: Each notebook now includes detailed instructions on configuring the kernel, ensuring users know which settings need to be configured based on the model they are using.

.env File Requirement

• Environment Configuration: A .env file is now required for the notebooks and must be placed in the same directory as the getting started notebooks to ensure all necessary environment variables are set correctly.

These enhancements aim to provide a smoother onboarding experience, helping users get up and running with our SDK more efficiently.

We hope these updates improve your experience with our SDK Jupyter notebooks. Thank you for your continued support!

What's Changed

• Bump azure-identity from 1.16.0 to 1.16.1 in /python by @dependabot in https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel/pull/6677
• Python: Bump chromadb from 0.4.24 to 0.5.0 in /python by @dependabot in https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel/pull/6659
• Python: Bump tornado from 6.4 to 6.4.1 in /python by @dependabot in https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel/pull/6591
• Python: Bump pymilvus from 2.3.7 to 2.4.3 in /python by @dependabot in https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel/pull/6516
• Python: fix: Preserve class type in experimental_class decorator to avoid type inference issues by @miladh in https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel/pull/6709
• Python: Env sample by @eavanvalkenburg in https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel/pull/6711
• Python: Update notebooks to run with dotenv settings. by @moonbox3 in https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel/pull/6713
• Python: Bump Python version to 1.1.1 for a release. by @moonbox3 in https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel/pull/6716

New Contributors

• @miladh made their first contribution in https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel/pull/6709

Full Changelog: https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel/compare/python-1.1.0...python-1.1.1