Spring Framework 6.0 RC1 Released: Key Features and Updates

Spring Framework 6.0 has released its first Release Candidate (RC1), requiring Java 17+ and migrating to the Jakarta EE 9+ namespace (replacing the old javax APIs with jakarta ).

The new version supports the latest web containers such as Tomcat 10 and Jetty 11, and the latest persistence framework Hibernate ORM 6.1, which are only usable with the Jakarta namespace variants of the Servlet API and JPA.

A major change is the completion of Ahead‑Of‑Time (AOT) compilation support for Spring application contexts, enabling optimized deployment and native image generation with GraalVM.

Developers can also experiment with virtual threads (Project Loom preview in JDK 19) via a custom Executor implementation, preparing for first‑class support when Loom becomes stable.

Additional features include an HTTP client based on @HttpExchange , RFC 7807 problem‑detail support, Micrometer‑based observability for the Spring HTTP client, and many other enhancements.

@HttpExchange based HTTP client interface support

RFC 7807 problem‑detail handling

Micrometer observability for Spring HTTP client

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The Spring team plans to release the first RC of Spring Boot 3.0 next week, followed by a second RC of Spring Framework 6.0, with the GA scheduled for November.

For more details, see the official announcement at spring.io/blog/2022/10/12/spring-framework-6-0-goes-rc1 and the GitHub release page github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/releases/tag/v6.0.0-RC1 .