Release Highlights

Key updates and highlights across the Spring portfolio corresponding to a specific Spring Boot version.

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Project updates associated with this release

11 projects updated as part of the Spring Boot 4.1 release train.

Spring Boot

v4.1.0
  • Spring gRPC SupportProvides support for writing and testing gRPC server and client applications, including standalone servers backed by Netty or using Servlet integration to expose gRPC over HTTP/2.
  • HTTP Client SSRF MitigationReactive and blocking HTTP clients can now be configured with an InetAddressFilter to block outgoing requests to specific addresses, hardening applications against SSRF attacks.
  • Observability ImprovementsContext can be automatically propagated to methods running on a separate thread using @Async. Also includes OpenTelemetry enhancements and SSL bundle support for OTLP.
  • File Rotation Support for Log4jSupport for configurable file rotation has been added for Log4j, with four strategies: size, time, size-and-time, and cron.

Spring Data

v2026.0.0
  • Type-safe Property PathsSupport for type-safe property paths and property references in Java and Kotlin to remove the need for stringly-typed programming when referring to properties within an entity.
  • Single-statement upsertSpring Data JDBC and R2DBC can persist a root aggregate with a single upsert statement when the identifier is already known.
  • Multi Collection Bulk Write API for MongoDBIssue a single request with mixed insert, update, and delete operations across multiple collections using MongoOperations.bulkWrite.
  • Annotation-driven Pub/Sub Listener Endpoints for RedisSupport for annotation-driven Pub/Sub Listener Endpoints built on Spring Messaging using @RedisListener.

Spring Security

v7.1.0
  • Publish Authentication Events in WebAuthnAuthentication events are now published during WebAuthn flows.
  • Added InetAddressMatcherIntroduced InetAddressMatcher in the core module for IP address matching capabilities.
  • Add RestClientOpaqueTokenIntrospectorAdded RestClientOpaqueTokenIntrospector for OAuth 2.0 opaque token introspection using RestClient.

Spring Kafka

v4.1.0
  • @KafkaListener ackModeThe @KafkaListener annotation now supports an ackMode attribute, allowing individual listeners to override the container factory's default acknowledgment mode.
  • Share Consumer EnhancementsUpdates include new Acknowledgment Modes, Async Commits, Error Handling, and Lifecycle Events for Share Consumers.
  • Kafka Streams Native DLQ SupportProvides exception handlers that support Kafka Streams DLQ for recovering deserialization, processing, and production exceptions.

Spring Integration

v7.1.0
  • CloudEvents SupportThe new spring-integration-cloudevents module has been introduced to support the CloudEvents specification.
  • gRPC SupportThe new spring-integration-grpc module has been introduced to support the gRPC framework.
  • HTTP and RestClientThe HttpRequestExecutingMessageHandler now can be used with a RestClient, deprecating the previous RestTemplate configuration.

Spring Modulith

v2.1.0
  • Event Externalization ImprovementsSupport for an outbox mode in event externalization via Namastack and JobRunr.
  • Cross-Thread Event VisibilityOpened up PublishedEvents and Scenario to see events from all threads by default during testing.
  • Application Module TestingAdded support for application module testing in combination with Boot's slice test support.

Spring AI

v2.0.0
  • Improved FoundationsUpgrades to Spring Boot 4.0 as the baseline, Jackson 3, introduces full null-safety with JSpecify, and completely refactors how options and configuration properties are handled.
  • Agentic Support ImprovementsLifts tool loops into the advisor chain as first-class, composable components. This enables unified tool calling, progressive tool disclosure via ToolSearchToolCallingAdvisor to scale to hundreds of tools, and self-correcting structured outputs via StructuredOutputValidationAdvisor.
  • Model Context Protocol IntegrationShips with MCP SDK 2.0.0 and introduces an annotation-driven programming model (@McpTool, @McpResource, @McpPrompt) for exposing Spring services. It features Streamable HTTP as the new default transport and adds production capabilities like Micrometer tracing and OAuth 2.0 security.

Spring Session

v4.1.0
  • Moves Spring Session Hazelcast to Hazelcast teamSpring Session Hazelcast is now led and maintained by the Hazelcast team.
  • Moves Spring Session MongoDB Team to MongoDB teamSpring Session MongoDB is now led and maintained by the MongoDB team.

Spring HATEOAS

v3.1.0
  • Caching in StringLinkRelationImproved caching mechanism in StringLinkRelation for better performance.
  • Spring Framework CompatibilityAdapt TypeConstrainedJacksonJsonHttpMessageConverter.canWrite to align with changes in Spring Framework 7.

Spring AMQP

v4.1.0
  • AMQP 1.0 ClientA new spring-amqp-client module has been introduced to provide support for interacting with the generic AMQP 1.0 protocol.

Spring LDAP

v4.1.0
  • Mandatory Single Result SupportAdded support for requiring a mandatory single result in LdapClient search operations.

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