On behalf of the team and everyone who contributed, we are pleased to announce that Spring for Apache Kafka 4.1.0-M2, 4.0.4, and 3.3.14 have been released. We extend our gratitude to all contributors who made these releases possible.

What's New in 4.1.0-M2

Apache Kafka Client 4.2.0

Spring for Apache Kafka 4.1.0-M2 is the first release built on Apache Kafka client 4.2.0. This upgrade aligns the framework with the latest Kafka client and broker features, including improvements to the share consumer (KIP-932: Queues for Kafka) support and related APIs.

Share Consumer Enhancements

• RENEW acknowledgment (#4322): ShareAcknowledgment now supports renew(), exposing Kafka’s AcknowledgeType.RENEW (KIP-1222).

Use it when processing may exceed group.share.record.lock.duration.ms. Call renew() to extend the acquisition lock without completing the record; a terminal acknowledgment (acknowledge(), release(), or reject()) is still required once when processing finishes.

• Error handling for the share consumer (#4321): The share consumer container now has configurable error handling at both poll level and listener level.

This includes proper handling of RecordDeserializationException and CorruptRecordException at poll time, and a pluggable recovery strategy for listener-level failures, bringing behavior closer to the traditional container’s CommonErrorHandler model.

Other Features and Fixes

• RetryableTopic defaults (#3706): The default behavior of @RetryableTopic and RetryTopicConfigurationBuilder is now aligned with the documentation.

• DefaultErrorHandler and suspend methods (#3618): DefaultErrorHandler now works correctly with Kotlin suspend listener methods.

• Bug fixes:

  • Addressed listener pause when using async acknowledgments (#4332)
  • Observation leaks for filtered messages that could fill memory (#4306)
  • assertTopic validation with meta-annotated @KafkaListener and programmatic topic resolution (#4303)
  • Error handler retries for listeners that return a Mono (#4198).

4.0.4 and 3.3.14 (Patch Releases)

Both patch releases include the same set of bug fixes, backported from 4.1.0-M2:

• Listener with async acks pauses indefinitely (#4344 / #4343) — the container no longer pauses indefinitely when using async acknowledgments.
• Observations for filtered messages are leaked (#4336 / #4335) — resolved a memory leak where observations for filtered messages were not completed.
• assertTopic validation and meta-annotated @KafkaListener (#4311 / #4312) — fixed validation when using meta-annotated @KafkaListener with programmatic topic resolution.

Release Notes

• 4.1.0-M2
• 4.0.4
• 3.3.14

Spring Boot Integration

Spring Kafka 3.3.14 will be integrated into Spring Boot 3.5.12. Spring Kafka 4.0.4 will be integrated into Spring Boot 4.0.4. Spring Kafka 4.1.0-M2 will be integrated into Spring Boot 4.1.0-M3.

Community Feedback

Feedback and issue reports are welcome on GitHub.

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