🚀 gluestack-ui v5 (Alpha)

[Sanchitv3]

🚀 gluestack-ui v5 (Alpha)

We’re excited to announce the alpha release of gluestack-ui v5, introducing a new architecture powered by NativeWind v5.

This release focuses on improving performance, styling flexibility, and developer experience for React Native applications.

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✨ Highlights

NativeWind v5 Support

gluestack-ui v5 is built on top of the upcoming NativeWind v5 architecture, enabling faster style processing and a more predictable styling workflow.

New CLI Capabilities

The gluestack CLI now supports:

• init — create new projects with NativeWind v5 or Uniwind
• add — add components based on your project configuration
• upgrade — migrate existing projects to gluestack-ui v5

Migration Support

You can now upgrade existing projects from:

• gluestack-ui v2
• gluestack-ui v3
• gluestack-ui v4

The CLI also supports migrating from NativeWind to Uniwind if needed.

Tailwind v4 Support

gluestack-ui v5 aligns with the new Tailwind v4 architecture.

Instead of configuring Tailwind through tailwind.config.js, configuration now lives inside global.css. This simplifies the setup and follows the latest Tailwind approach to styling.

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🧪 Alpha Release

This is an early alpha release intended for experimentation and feedback while NativeWind v5 continues to evolve.

APIs and implementation details may change before the stable release.

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🚀 Getting Started

Initialize a new project:

npx gluestack-ui@alpha init

Upgrade an existing project:

npx gluestack-ui@alpha upgrade

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💬 Feedback

We welcome feedback, issues, and contributions from the community as we continue refining the v5 ecosystem.

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This discussion was created from the release 🚀 gluestack-ui v5 (Alpha).

[woodsandwalker]

Hey, thanks for the update.

I am a little confused as there seems to be a v4 branch and also a v5 release now. Will the next version be v4 or v5?

And do you have a rough idea when you expect to have a stable version released?

[Sanchitv3]

Hi @woodsandwalker ,

Great question — totally fair confusion!

The next version will be v5.

The v4 branch exists because we were working on it earlier, but during that process the styling ecosystem started shifting (NativeWind v4 on Tailwind v3 vs Uniwind on Tailwind v4). Instead of releasing a partially aligned v4, we moved forward with a more consistent foundation in v5.

So going forward, v5 is the active direction.

In terms of stability — most of the core pieces are already stable. The main areas still evolving are NativeWind v5 itself and web support.

We’re planning to move towards a stable release soon as those pieces settle, and we’ll be iterating quickly on top of the current alpha.

If you’re experimenting, it should already be in a good state for most use cases.

[harveyappleton]

This is great thanks @Sanchitv3 - the Uniwind direction looks really interesting. Will Uniwind have first class support from you guys going forward with Gluestack v5? I'd certainly consider jumping up to Gluestack v5 with Uniwind if that is a stable long term option you guys will support.

[bormm]

The expo Go QR Code here (https://gluestack.io/) and also the one on the v5 page (https://v5.gluestack.io/) is unusable. The message is "HTTP response error 403: Experience "@gluestack/kitchen-sink" is not viewable in Expo Go: the signed-in Expo account does not have access to the account that owns this project. Sign in to Expo Go with an account that is a member of the owner account, or ask an admin of that account to invite you."

[bormm]

Hi,
this announcement is not mentioning this alpha release (might) only address expo apps, because both next based templates are still referencing the v4 alpha packages.
So the next template:

gluestack-ui/apps/starter-kit-next/package.json

Line 14 in 9dc308e

"@gluestack-ui/core": "^4.0.0-alpha.0",

And the universal template:

gluestack-ui/apps/starter-kit-monorepo/pnpm-lock.yaml

Line 19 in 9dc308e

specifier: 4.0.0-alpha.0

Is this just a template issue or is gluestack-ui alpha unable to run with next correctly?

[Sanchitv3]

Hi @bormm ,
Great question. Currently, v5 comes with NativeWind v5 support, which at the moment is only supported for native apps. Because of that, the Next.js-based templates are still pinned to the v4 alpha packages.

So this is expected for now and not an issue with the templates themselves. Once NativeWind v5 support for Next.js is ready/stable, we’ll update and push the Next.js templates to v5 as well.

[bormm]

I understand, thank you for the reply!

[harveyappleton]

Hey @Sanchitv3

Do we have a timeline/estimated date for when Gluestack v5 will come out of alpha?
v5 Alpha release was on Mar 16, we're nearly 3 months on now - any sign of this becoming usable for production/stable with Uniwind?

Thanks!

[drn1996]

Whats missing to get it done? I might be able to save some time and help you guys complete it

[Sanchitv3]

Hi @drn1996 , we are waiting for nativewind v5 to release support for nextjs. Otherwise it's good to go. Although We can drop nextjs for gluestack-ui v5 , it's still in discussion.

[harveyappleton]

@Sanchitv3 if you could drop nextjs for gluestack-ui v5 so that it can be released sooner that would be great