Toit v2.0.0 was released on 31 October 2026. Toit is an open-source, object-oriented language with its own compiler and virtual machine that runs on the ESP32, and the stable release follows more than four years of alpha builds. In the announcement, Florian Loitsch counts more than 2,000 commits, more than 500,000 changed lines and over 200 alpha releases. The last of them, alpha.199, came out in September.

Stable in practice, now in name

Toit started as closed-source software at Toitware and was later opened up. Toitware shut down in 2024, and since then volunteers have kept the project going. According to the announcement, the language has been stable for a long time despite the label. Two things held back the 2.0 number: breaking changes that were still planned, and the habit of waiting for one more important feature.

The last breaking change on the list has now landed. Peripheral APIs accept pin numbers directly, so code no longer has to wrap every pin in a gpio.Pin object first. Anyone with older Toit code that touches GPIO, I2C or SPI should check it after upgrading. On features, the team gave up waiting: open pull requests for a code formatter, compiler resolution improvements and more architectures will land in later releases.

What changed in the release itself

The v2.0.0 release notes are short:

  • "Lots" of bug fixes since alpha.199.
  • Unix domain socket support, available through the host package.
  • The device hostname can be set in the firmware configuration.

The announcement also lists what has grown since Toit went open source: support for almost all ESP32 variants plus the Arm-based EC618, a single toit command that also makes the language usable for desktop scripts, a rewritten package manager, mixins, firmware "envelopes" that let users customise firmware without rebuilding the SDK, better hardware testing and syntax highlighting for Toit on GitHub.

Where it fits next to ESPHome and Arduino

ESPHome describes a device in YAML and generates C++ firmware. Toit is a general-purpose language for writing the program yourself, closer in spirit to MicroPython, but compiled and run in its own VM. Its strongest feature for tinkering is Jaguar: a small app on the ESP32 receives compiled Toit programs over Wi-Fi through a built-in HTTP server, and jag watch updates and restarts the code within about two seconds, with no serial cable and no full reflash. Extra services, such as NTP time sync, install as separate containers next to the main program.

The compiler and VM are licensed under LGPL-2.1, and the standard libraries under MIT. Version 2.0 does not change how Toit works. What it gives is a stable base, which makes it easier to depend on the language in devices that run for years and to write packages that will not break on the next build.