Hello Kafka users, developers and client-developers, This is the 1st candidate for release of Apache Kafka 4.4.0. Apache Kafka 4.4.0 is a minor release that includes 26 KIPs spanning improvements to all components.
Release notes for the 4.4.0 release: https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka/4.4.0-rc0/RELEASE_NOTES.html Please download, test and vote by Monday, August 24, 2026 at 3:00pm BST (7:00am PT) Kafka's KEYS file containing PGP keys we use to sign the release: https://downloads.apache.org/kafka/KEYS * Release artifacts to be voted upon (source and binary): https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka/4.4.0-rc0/ * Docker release artifacts to be voted upon: apache/kafka:4.4.0-rc0 apache/kafka-native:4.4.0-rc0 * Maven artifacts to be voted upon: https://repository.apache.org/content/groups/staging/org/apache/kafka/ * Javadoc: https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka/4.4.0-rc0/javadoc/index.html * Tag to be voted upon (off 4.4 branch) is the 4.4.0 tag: https://github.com/apache/kafka/releases/tag/4.4.0-rc0 * Documentation: PR: https://github.com/apache/kafka-site/pull/905 * Protocol: PR: https://github.com/apache/kafka-site/pull/905 * Successful CI builds for the 4.4 branch: https://github.com/apache/kafka/actions/runs/32487577786 * Docker Build Test Pipeline: Blocked by a GitHub Actions allowlist issue (fix pending: https://github.com/apache/kafka/pull/23229). The RC Docker images were built and pushed successfully. Thanks, Omnia
