Edge Impulse adds west extension commands to Zephyr workflow
Edge Impulse has added new west extension commands to its Zephyr integration, aiming to make embedded ML deployments feel like a normal part of a Zephyr build rather than a separate “export-and-copy” step. The update, published today, 6 January 2026, introduces project commands that can trigger a cloud build in Edge Impulse Studio and then pull the resulting Zephyr library artefacts straight into a developer’s workspace.
west extension commands in the Zephyr workflow
The new commands are west ei-build and west ei-deploy. In Edge Impulse’s flow, ei-build triggers a fresh build of the selected deployment in Studio (using an API key and project ID), while ei-deploy downloads the pre-built package so it can be dropped into a Zephyr application and compiled as part of the firmware. After that, developers continue with the usual Zephyr steps, typically west build and west flash, to produce and program the final image.
Under the hood, this works the way Zephyr expects: Zephyr’s meta-tool is designed to be “pluggable,” and projects can add custom commands without patching the tool itself. Edge Impulse is using that mechanism by registering a west-commands YAML file in its module entry. The company’s launch post positions this as the next step after its October 2025 Zephyr module announcement, where the SDK moved into Zephyr’s module system instead of being manually copied around.
Why west extension commands matter for CI/CD
The practical pitch is automation. By making Studio builds callable from the same command line developers already use for Zephyr, teams can wire model builds and artefact updates into CI/CD jobs and broader MLOps routines, then keep firmware builds reproducible inside the Zephyr workspace. Edge Impulse documents the “build in Studio, download locally” split in its deployment guide.
This also lines up with how Zephyr developers already think about managing dependencies: manifests, modules, and scripted workflows. As previously reported by Alexander Neumann in eeNews Europe’s interview with Benjamin Cabé, “West” has become a central part of day-to-day Zephyr development.
Tech talk planned for mid-January
Edge Impulse says it will demonstrate the workflow in a Zephyr Tech Talk on 14 January 2026, with Benjamin Cabé, Francesco Varani, and Eoin Jordan. For readers who want the Zephyr-side background on pluggable tooling, the Zephyr documentation page outlines how custom commands are discovered and surfaced in help output.
For Edge Impulse users, the headline is straightforward: west extension commands are intended to reduce friction between model iteration and firmware iteration, so “update the model” becomes another scripted step in the same Zephyr-centric workflow. Edge Impulse describes the feature as an early access preview and says more CI/MLOps guidance is planned.
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