###################
3.3.0 (2026 Jun 17)
###################

XGBoost 3.3 adds expectile regression, enables categorical feature support by default,
expands SHAP support for vector-leaf models, and includes optimizations for histogram
building, quantile sketching, and distributed GPU training.

************
SHAP Support
************

- Change the TreeSHAP implementation for improved numerical stability and faster execution
  with ``QuadratureTreeSHAP`` (:pr:`12179`, :pr:`12192`, :pr:`12207`)
- Add exact SHAP contribution and interaction prediction for vector-leaf multi-output
  trees on both CPU and GPU. (:pr:`12209`, :pr:`12210`, :pr:`12247`, :pr:`11985`, :pr:`12208`)

*******************************************
Quantile Sketching and Distributed Training
*******************************************

The quantile sketching went through some major refactoring and optimizations. XGBoost
3.3.0 simplifies quantile sketch internals and improves the weighted quantile sketch
implementation (:pr:`12033`, :pr:`12046`, :pr:`12048`, :pr:`12049`, :pr:`12054`,
:pr:`12067`, :pr:`12074`, :pr:`12146`, :pr:`12148`, :pr:`12150`, :pr:`12151`, :pr:`12155`,
:pr:`12167`), with significantly reduced memory use in the GPU quantile sketch
(:pr:`12047`, :pr:`12079`, :pr:`12090`, :pr:`12099`, :pr:`12104`, :pr:`12105`,
:pr:`12118`, :pr:`12147`, :pr:`12159`, :pr:`12160`). Also, we have a more efficient
distributed quantile construction using tree reductions. (:pr:`12061`, :pr:`12128`,
:pr:`12171`)

********
Features
********

- Add expectile regression with the ``reg:expectileerror`` objective, the ``expectile``
  metric, and the ``expectile_alpha`` parameter. Multiple expectiles are
  supported. (:pr:`11988`, :pr:`12228`, :pr:`12243`)
- Enable categorical feature support by default while keeping ``enable_categorical``
  available for users who need to disable it. CPU ``hist`` also gained one-hot categorical
  split support for the working-in-progress vector leaf. (:pr:`12015`, :pr:`12072`, :pr:`12244`)
- Deprecate the ``gblinear`` booster. Support will be removed in a future
  release. (:pr:`12030`)
- Use a local RNG and serialize RNG state. Training multiple models with sampling within
  the same session is now reproducible. (:pr:`12043`, :pr:`12083`)

*************
Optimizations
*************

- Optimize CPU histogram building for wide datasets with column block tiling and detect
  CPU cache sizes via Linux sysfs on aarch64. (:pr:`12158`, :pr:`12233`)
- Use Philox for faster GPU sampling. (:pr:`12223`)
- Support customizing worker port for distributed training. In addition, XGBoost now
  doesn't need all-to-all collective connections for improved scalability. (:pr:`12010`,
  :pr:`12075`, :pr:`12171`, :pr:`12082`)

**************
Python Package
**************

- Bump the minimum supported Python version to 3.12. (:pr:`12195`)
- Add PySpark support for Spark Connect ML. (:pr:`11970`)
- Require ``Enum`` support from Polars and validate unique pandas column names.
  (:pr:`12240`, :pr:`12199`)

- Fix the default verbose behavior mismatch between ``XGBClassifier.fit`` and
  ``XGBRegressor.fit``. (:pr:`12184`)
- Fix ``python -OO`` crashes caused by assigning to missing docstrings (:pr:`12094`)
- Handle boolean indicator features in ``trees_to_dataframe``. (:pr:`12089`)
- Improve validation and error messages for feature information and deprecated
  functions. (:pr:`12142`, :pr:`12200`)
- Clean up imports, type checking comments, and legacy compatibility guards.
  (:pr:`12027`, :pr:`12110`, :pr:`12163`)

************
JVM Packages
************

- Document Spark 4.0 compatibility for JVM packages. (:pr:`12136`)
- Support regressor and ranker pipelines with columnar input. (:pr:`12058`)
- Add automatic module names for Java packages and support xgboost4j on FreeBSD.
  (:pr:`12114`, :pr:`12222`)

******************
Build and Platform
******************

- Support Visual Studio 2026. (:pr:`12245`)
- Update CUDA Toolkit support, including CUDA Toolkit 13.3 type updates and default
  architecture alignment for recent CUDA versions. (:pr:`12230`, :pr:`12204`)
- Support latest RAPIDS. (:pr:`12140`, :pr:`12013`, :pr:`12212`, :pr:`12144`)
- Fix CMake export targets and builds with system-installed ``dmlc-core``.  (:pr:`12238`,
  :pr:`12123`)
- Fix macOS build and packaging issues. (:pr:`12187`, :pr:`12108`)
- Improve Linux packaging with versioned shared object. (:pr:`12055`)

*****
Fixes
*****

- Fix out-of-vocabulary categorical encoding and categorical splits with vector-leaf
  models. (:pr:`12193`, :pr:`12244`)
- Fix SYCL multiclass objective calculation. (:pr:`12041`)
- Fix in-place prune aliasing and assorted prediction/documentation typos.
  (:pr:`12202`, :pr:`12076`, :pr:`12070`, :pr:`12003`)

*********
Documents
*********

- Add TreeSHAP references, distributed XGBoost on Kubernetes documentation, and updates to
  competition-winning solution examples. (:pr:`12207`, :pr:`12080`, :pr:`12087`,
  :pr:`12109`)
- Add notes for pickling, expectile margin output, Spark 4.0 compatibility. (:pr:`12042`,
  :pr:`12243`, :pr:`12136`, :pr:`12247`)
- Update LightGBM links, the security disclosure, the ``xgboost-cpu`` package note, and
  the Read the Docs canonical URL. (:pr:`12084`, :pr:`12113`, :pr:`12169`, :pr:`12246`)

******************
CI and Maintenance
******************

- Unify CI configure workflows, document the clang-tidy flow, and keep CI images and
  dependency pins up to date. (:pr:`12170`, :pr:`12175`, :pr:`12165`)
- Keep GitHub Actions dependency groups and release bookkeeping up to date. (:pr:`12005`,
  :pr:`12029`, :pr:`12034`, :pr:`12038`, :pr:`12057`, :pr:`12095`, :pr:`12124`,
  :pr:`12134`, :pr:`12145`, :pr:`12161`, :pr:`12178`, :pr:`12188`, :pr:`12206`,
  :pr:`12231`, :pr:`12249`)
- Update CI jobs for ``cibuildwheel``, CRAN, R CI, and documentation tests. (:pr:`12066`,
  :pr:`12125`, :pr:`12173`, :pr:`12216`)
- Continue test cleanup and refactoring across quantile sketching, PySpark, global
  configuration. (:pr:`12002`, :pr:`12007`, :pr:`12009`, :pr:`12019`, :pr:`12141`,
  :pr:`12164`, :pr:`12180`, :pr:`12190`)
- Continue cleanup of prediction and DART internals, including moving DART state into
  ``GBTree`` and unifying DART SHAP forwarding. (:pr:`12068`, :pr:`12071`, :pr:`12073`,
  :pr:`12078`, :pr:`12081`, :pr:`12022`)
- Always save DART configuration. (:pr:`12098`)
- Improved support for using clang-tidy with CUDA code. (:pr:`12165`, :pr:`12174`)
- Various small cleanups. (:pr:`12053`, :pr:`12092`)
- Improve CUDA resource handling and diagnostics, small cleanups for external
  memory. (:pr:`12092`, :pr:`12127`, :pr:`12185`, :pr:`12191`, :pr:`12137`, :pr:`12069`)