The Spring Team on Spring Framework 7 and Spring Boot 4

Key Spring team members discuss the major changes in Spring Framework 7 and Spring Boot 4, released in November 2025. Spring Boot 4 modularizes auto-configurations to improve startup times and reduce uber jar sizes. Spring Framework 7 integrates retry support (RetryTemplate, @Retryable including reactive types) and concurrency throttling (@ConcurrencyLimit) directly into the core framework. First-class HTTP API versioning supports path, header, query parameter, and media type strategies with no opinionated default. The team views AI coding tools as transformational and is developing Spring Tools 5 with AI-ready features. Upgrading from Spring Boot 3 to 4 is aided by a Jackson 2 compatibility module, OpenRewrite recipes, and a migration guide, while extended enterprise support (72 months paid) gives organizations flexibility on upgrade timing.