SmartHopper 2.0.0-dev.260821: Local and self-hosted AI, batch calling, and the Provider SDK

SmartHopper 2.0.0-dev.260821 brings two new ways to run AI locally, batch processing for OpenRouter, and the foundation for a standalone Provider SDK.

🏠 New self-hosted AI providers

• Connect directly to a self-hosted LocalAI or Ollama server using the new built-in providers.
• Both support OpenAI-compatible chat completions, tools, streaming, and JSON Schema structured outputs.
• Ollama includes a seed extra-descriptor for reproducible outputs.

📦 OpenRouter batch support and estimated cost

• OpenRouter now supports batch requests with submission, status polling, cancellation, and result download when the selected model declares SupportsBatch.
• New AIMetrics.EstimatedCost and AICostCalculator estimate the USD cost of each call from provider pricing and token buckets; exposed through Deconstruct SmartHopper Metrics and the metrics JSON output.
• OpenRouter :batch model variants are now canonicalized to their base slug.

🧩 Provider SDK foundation

• This release introduces SmartHopper.ProviderSdk, the new SDK layer that all built-in providers now reference.
• In the future the SDK will be split out of the main repository as a standalone NuGet package, making it easier for third-party developers to build custom SmartHopper providers.

⚙️ Technical Requirements

• Rhino 8.0 or above is required
• Windows 10/11 or macOS
• Valid API keys for MistralAI, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Anthropic, OpenRouter, Gemini, or a self-hosted LocalAI/Ollama endpoint (API key optional)

📝 Important Notes

• This is a dev.260821 release with some features still unstable or subject to change
• API keys are required, and usage costs apply based on your provider
• Documentation is currently under development

💬 We Value Your Feedback!

Help shape SmartHopper's future by:

• Sharing your experiences with the new features
• Suggesting improvements via our discussion (https://github.com/architects-toolkit/SmartHopper/discussions)
• Telling us what AI capabilities would help your workflow most

We hope you enjoy these new features and improvements!
Happy designing!

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Auto-generated release notes

What's Changed

• chore: add provider hash manifest for 2.0.0-dev.260802 by @github-actions[bot] in #727
• chore(templates): add 2.0.0-dev.260802 to model-verification dropdown by @github-actions[bot] in #726
• chore(templates): sync model-verification template with ProviderModels by @github-actions[bot] in #730
• ci: enforce linear history and auto-rebase dev onto main by @devin-ai-integration[bot] in #731
• release: SmartHopper 2.0.0-dev.260803 by @devin-ai-integration[bot] in #733
• Dev release 2.0.0-dev.260821 by @marc-romu in #752

Full Changelog: 2.0.0-dev.260802...2.0.0-dev.260821