<p>Astro 6.0 is out, and it’s a fairly substantial release. Here’s what actually changed.</p>
<h2>Dev server rewrite</h2>
<p>The biggest under-the-hood change is a rewritten dev server powered by Vite’s Environment API. The goal is better dev/production parity - your local environment now matches the actual production runtime, including Cloudflare Workers bindings like KV, D1, and R2. If you’ve ever shipped something that worked locally but broke on Cloudflare, this is the fix.</p>
<p>The same rewrite also improves parity for Bun and Deno runtimes.</p>
<h2>Fonts API</h2>
<p>There’s now a built-in Fonts API that handles self-hosted font optimization through a unified component-based interface. It supports local fonts, Google Fonts, and Fontsource, and takes care of automatic caching and preload hints. Nothing you couldn’t wire up manually before, but having it built in removes a lot of boilerplate.</p>
<h2>Live Content Collections</h2>
<p>Content Collections now have a “live” mode that fetches data at request time rather than at build time. This means CMS updates show up without a rebuild. It complements the existing static build-time collections rather than replacing them - you pick the right tool for each use case.</p>
<h2>Content Security Policy</h2>
<p>CSP support is now stable and built in by default. It includes automatic hashing for inline scripts and styles, a full configuration API, and support for custom hashing algorithms and directives. Previously you’d have to manage this yourself or through a plugin.</p>
<h2>Experimental features</h2>
<p>Three things are behind experimental flags:</p>
<p><strong>Rust compiler</strong> - A rewrite of the existing Go-based <code>.astro</code> compiler in Rust. Apparently it was AI-assisted, which is either interesting or concerning depending on your perspective. Speed improvements are the main pitch.</p>
<p><strong>Queued rendering</strong> - A two-pass rendering approach that replaces the current recursive rendering. The team is reporting up to 2x speed improvements and plans to make this the default in Astro 7.</p>
<p><strong>Route caching API</strong> - A platform-agnostic caching API using web-standard cache semantics, with cache invalidation tied to live content collections.</p>
<h2>Dependency upgrades</h2>
<p>The release bumps Vite to 7, Shiki to 4, and Zod to 4. Node 20+ is required (some sources say Node 22+, so check the release notes for your specific version).</p>
<p>Overall this feels like a release focused on closing the gap between development and production, with the Cloudflare improvements being the most immediately practical for anyone deploying there.</p>


Collections

Astro 6.0 ships with a rewritten dev server powered by Vite's Environment API for better dev/production parity, including support for Cloudflare Workers bindings (KV, D1, R2), Bun, and Deno. New features include a built-in Fonts API for self-hosted font optimization, Live Content Collections that fetch data at request time for CMS updates without rebuilds, and stable CSP support with automatic inline script/style hashing. Experimental features include a Rust-based compiler rewrite (AI-assisted), a queued two-pass rendering system promising up to 2x speed gains, and a platform-agnostic Route Caching API. Dependency bumps include Vite 7, Shiki 4, and Zod 4, with Node 20+ required.

Astro 6.0: new dev server, Fonts API, and a Rust compiler