jQuery 3.6.1 Release Highlights and Changes

One year after the release of jQuery 3.6.0, the team delivered a maintenance update, jQuery 3.6.1, with several important changes.

Improved infrastructure : CI was migrated from Travis CI to GitHub Actions, tests now run on Node 16, HTTPS is used for test listeners, and more precise custom‑build testing was added.

Removed outdated links : Some comments in repository files that pointed to leaked URLs were deleted, even though those files were never distributed.

Fixed focus‑loss bug : After removing jQuery’s internal focus handler, residual special‑event handling still kept focus connections, breaking subsequent manual focus triggers. Example code: $elem.on("focus", function() {}).off("focus").trigger("focus"); The fix ensures that focus is no longer unintentionally retained.

Optimized jQuery.trim performance : Although jQuery.trim is slated for removal in the next major version in favor of native String#trim , it remains needed for older browsers (e.g., Android 4.0) on the 3.x branch. A regex issue that caused extreme slowness in edge cases has been resolved, delivering a noticeable speed boost.

jQuery is a fast, small, and feature‑rich JavaScript library that simplifies HTML document traversal, event handling, animation, and Ajax through an easy‑to‑use API that works across many browsers, combining versatility and extensibility to change how millions write JavaScript.

Overall, the 3.6.1 release focuses on modernizing the build pipeline, fixing subtle bugs, and improving performance while maintaining compatibility for legacy environments.