v1.0.0rc1

# `inference 1.0.0rc1` — Release Candidate

Today marks an important milestone for Inference.

Over the past years, Inference has grown from a lightweight prediction server into a widely adopted runtime used across local deployments, Docker, edge devices, and production systems. Hundreds of releases later, the project has matured significantly — and so has the need for a faster, more modular, and future-proof.

`inference 1.0.0rc1` is a preview of `1.0.0` release which will close one chapter and open another - this release introduces a new prediction engine that will become the foundation for all future development.

## 🚀 New prediction engine - `inference-models`

We are introducing inference-models, a redesigned execution engine focused on:
* faster model loading and inference
* improved resource utilization
* better modularity and extensibility
* cleaner separation between serving and model runtime
* stronger foundations for future major versions

The engine is already available today in:
* `inference-models` package → 0.18.6rc8 (RC)
* `inference` package and Docker → enabled with env variable
```
USE_INFERENCE_MODELS=True
```

`inference-models` wrapped within old `inference` is a drop-down replacement. This allows testing the new runtime without changing existing integrations.

> [!IMPORTANT]  
> Predictions from your models may change - but generally for better! `inference-models` is completely new engine for running models, we have fixed a lot of bugs and make it multi-backend - capable to run `onnx`, `torch` and even `trt` models! It automatically negotiate with Roboflow model registry to choose best package to run in your environment. We have already migrated almost all Roboflow models to new registry - working hard to achieve full coverage soon! 

## 📅 What happens next

* Next week
  * Stable `Inference` 1.0.0
  * Stable `inference-models` release
  * Roboflow platform updated to use `inference-models` as the default engine

* In the coming weeks
   * `inference-models` becomes the default engine for public builds (`USE_INFERENCE_MODELS` becomes opt-out, not opt-in)
   * continued performance improvements and runtime optimizations

## 🔭 Looking forward - the road to `2.0`

* This engine refresh is only the first step.
* We are starting work toward Inference 2.0, a larger modernization effort similar in spirit to the changes introduced with `inference-models`. 

**Stay tuned for future updates!**