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Key updates and highlights across the Spring portfolio corresponding to a specific Spring Boot version.
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Release Themes
Cross-cutting improvements spanning every project in this release train.
Jakarta EE 11
The whole portfolio moves to Jakarta EE 11 — Servlet 6.1, JPA 3.2, Bean Validation 3.1, and more.
JSpecify Null-Safety
Every project adopts JSpecify annotations, enabling NullAway-verified null-safe APIs in your application code.
Jackson 3
Jackson 3 is now the default across the entire portfolio. Jackson 2 remains available in deprecated form.
Spring Core Retry
The spring-retry library is replaced by a built-in retry API in spring-core, adopted by AMQP, Kafka, Integration, and Batch.
GraalVM 25 & Native
Spring Framework 7.0 adopts GraalVM 25's unified reachability metadata format for leaner native images.
Project updates associated with this release
17 projects updated as part of the Spring Boot 4.0 release train.
Spring Cloud
v2025.1- Spring Boot 4.0 AlignmentSpring Cloud 2025.1 (Oakwood) is the release train aligned with Spring Boot 4.0, adopting Jakarta EE 11, Jackson 3 as the default serialization library, and JSpecify null-safety annotations across the entire portfolio.
- API Versioning in Spring Cloud GatewaySpring Cloud Gateway 5.0 adds a Server WebFlux API Versioning Predicate, integrating with Spring Framework 7's new API versioning model to route requests to the correct upstream service based on the requested API version.
- Circuit Breaker for Spring Interface ClientsSpring Cloud Commons 5.0 adds built-in Circuit Breaker integration for annotated Spring Interface Clients (backed by RestClient or WebClient), enabling declarative resilience patterns without manual configuration.
- Load Balancer lb:// Scheme for Interface ClientsSpring Cloud Commons now supports using the lb:// URL scheme to specify load-balanced base URLs directly on Spring Interface Client declarations, unifying service-discovery and HTTP client configuration.
- Spring Cloud Stream Consumer PrioritySpring Cloud Stream 5.0 adds consumer priority ordering, letting you control which consumers receive messages first, and introduces per-binding KTable materialization controls for cache and logging in the Kafka Streams binder.
Spring Framework
v7.0- Resilience: @Retryable & @ConcurrencyLimitDeclarative retry and concurrency throttling are now built into spring-core and spring-context. Enable them with @EnableResilientMethods on a @Configuration class. @Retryable works on both imperative and reactive methods.
- API VersioningFirst-class API versioning for Spring MVC and WebFlux: version-aware request mapping, functional routing, deprecation notification, and client-side version setting in RestClient, WebClient, and HTTP interface clients.
- Programmatic Bean RegistrationThe new BeanRegistrar contract supports flexible, multi-bean registration scenarios that @Bean methods cannot express, without resorting to BeanDefinitionRegistryPostProcessor.
- RestTestClientA non-reactive counterpart to WebTestClient that binds to live servers, MockMvc, or a RouterFunction with a fluent, AssertJ-friendly API. Auto-configured in @SpringBootTest.
Spring Security
v7.0- Spring Authorization Server IncludedThe OAuth 2.0 Authorization Server is now part of Spring Security itself — no separate dependency needed. PKCE is enabled by default for public clients.
- Multi-Factor AuthenticationBuilt-in MFA support for servlet applications, with a default login page that renders additional factors based on factor.type and factor.reason parameters.
- Password4j EncodersNew Password4j-based encoders for Argon2, BCrypt, SCrypt, PBKDF2, and Balloon Hashing provide modern, well-tested alternatives for password storage.
- Modular Security ConfigurationHttpSecurity and ServerHttpSecurity now support modular configuration, letting teams compose security setup from multiple focused, reusable modules instead of one large configuration class.
Spring Data
v2025.1- AOT Repositories Enabled by DefaultRepository query methods are now processed at build time by default, improving startup performance and GraalVM native image compatibility without any extra configuration.
- Vector Search MethodsNew repository query method conventions for vector-similarity search across JPA (via Hibernate Vector), MongoDB (Atlas Search), Neo4j, and Cassandra — returning SearchResult and SearchResults types with relevance scores.
- JPA Derived Queries Use JPQL StringsDerived query methods are now generated as JPQL strings instead of using the Criteria API, yielding a roughly 3.5x improvement in query throughput on in-memory databases and ~25% on typical applications via Hibernate's query cache.
- JSpecify Null-SafetyComprehensive JSpecify nullability annotations across Spring Data Commons give you IDE and NullAway tooling support for null-safe data access code.
Spring Batch
v6.0- Java Flight Recorder ObservabilityJobExecution and StepExecution lifecycle events are now recorded as JFR events, enabling low-overhead profiling and diagnostics of batch workloads with standard JDK tooling.
- Functional Job & Step InterfacesBoth Job and Step are now @FunctionalInterface, making it possible to define simple jobs and steps as concise lambda expressions.
- Graceful SIGTERM ShutdownA new shutdown hook catches SIGTERM and gracefully stops running job executions, preventing data corruption on container or process termination.
- Consolidated JobRepository & JobExplorer APIsJobRepository now extends JobExplorer and JobOperator now extends JobLauncher, significantly reducing the number of beans most applications need to declare and inject.
Spring Boot
v4.0- HTTP Service ClientsAuto-configuration and configuration properties for annotated Java interface–based HTTP clients backed by RestClient or WebClient, so you can declare a plain interface and let Spring create the implementation.
- API VersioningBuilt-in auto-configuration for API versioning with Spring MVC and WebFlux. Configure how versions are resolved, parsed, and deprecated using spring.mvc.apiversion.* or spring.webflux.apiversion.* properties.
- OpenTelemetry StarterA new spring-boot-starter-opentelemetry brings everything needed to export metrics and traces over OTLP, and auto-configures the OpenTelemetry SDK with zero extra setup.
Spring AMQP
v4.0- RabbitMQ AMQP 1.0 SupportA new spring-rabbitmq-client module provides full AMQP 1.0 protocol support for RabbitMQ 4.0+, based on the official com.rabbitmq.client:amqp-client library.
- Spring Core RetryThe spring-retry dependency is removed. Retry logic now uses the new spring-core retry API, with dedicated StatelessRetryOperationsInterceptor and StatefulRetryOperationsInterceptor replacements.
- Jackson 3 DefaultJackson 3 is the new default for message conversion. Jackson 2-based converters remain available but are deprecated for removal in a future release.
Spring for Apache Kafka
v4.0- ZooKeeper Removed — KRaft OnlyApache Kafka 4.0 completes the KRaft transition. ZooKeeper and EmbeddedKafkaZKBroker are gone; EmbeddedKafkaKraftBroker is the only embedded test broker.
- Kafka Queues (Share Consumer)Early-access support for Kafka Queues via share consumers (KIP-932), enabling multiple consumers to cooperatively consume from the same partition for better load distribution.
- New Consumer Rebalance ProtocolSupport for Kafka 4.0's next-generation consumer rebalance protocol (KIP-848), which reduces rebalance latency and improves stability under churn.
Spring Integration
v7.0- RabbitMQ AMQP 1.0 Channel AdaptersThe spring-integration-amqp module now includes inbound and outbound channel adapters for RabbitMQ AMQP 1.0, complementing the existing AMQP 0-9-1 adapters.
- JDBC JSON Message StoreJdbcChannelMessageStore now supports JSON serialization as an alternative to Java serialization, making messages inspectable and portable in the database.
- DistributedLock with TTLA new DistributedLock interface adds TTL-aware lock acquisition (lock(Duration ttl), tryLock(…, Duration ttl)), supported by both the JDBC and Redis lock registries.
Spring Modulith
v2.0- Revamped Event Publication LifecycleEvent publications now track four distinct states — published, processing, failed, and resubmitted — with support for JDBC, JPA, MongoDB, and Neo4j event publication repositories.
- Application-Module-Specific Flyway MigrationsEach application module can now own its own Flyway migration scripts, keeping database schema evolution aligned with module boundaries.
- Module Structure Verification on StartupApplication module structure can now be verified at application startup, catching module boundary violations early in production rather than only in tests.
Spring GraphQL
v2.0- GraphQL Java 25Upgraded to GraphQL Java 25.0 and GraphiQL 5.2.1, bringing the latest schema and query execution capabilities to Spring GraphQL applications.
- Full Spring Framework 7.0 & Security 7.0 AlignmentSpring GraphQL 2.0 is fully aligned with Spring Framework 7.0 and Spring Security 7.0, including their updated authorization, null-safety, and reactive programming model changes.
Spring HATEOAS
v3.0- Jackson 3 & AOT SupportFull upgrade to Jackson 3 for HAL, HAL-FORMS, and all other hypermedia types, with updated AOT processing so GraalVM native images work out of the box.
- HAL Link Discovery in Embedded ResourcesHalLinkDiscoverer can now find links inside embedded documents, enabling richer traversal of HAL responses without custom parsing code.
Spring Web Services
v5.0- Jakarta EE 11 & JSpecifySpring WS 5.0 moves to Jakarta EE 11 (Servlet 6.1, Jakarta XML Bind 4.0, Jakarta Activation 2.1) and adopts JSpecify null-safety annotations across its API.
- Apache WSS4J 4.0WS-Security support is upgraded to Apache WSS4J 4.0, bringing the latest security standards and fixes.
Spring Session
v4.0- Spring Security 7.0 & Spring Data 2025.1 AlignmentSession management is fully aligned with Spring Security 7.0's authorization model and Spring Data 2025.1's repository layer, including all supported backing stores.
Spring for Apache Pulsar
v2.0- Spring Framework 7.0 AlignmentSpring for Apache Pulsar 2.0 is fully aligned with Spring Framework 7.0, Micrometer 1.16, and the Reactor 2025.0 release train.
Spring REST Docs
v4.0- Antora-Based DocumentationThe Spring REST Docs reference documentation is now published using Antora, aligning with the broader Spring portfolio documentation platform.
Spring LDAP
v4.0- Spring Framework 7.0 & Micrometer 1.16 AlignmentSpring LDAP 4.0 is fully aligned with Spring Framework 7.0, Micrometer 1.16, and Reactor 2025.0.
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