Istio Release 1.30

Istio Release 1.30

Timeline

• Branch Cut / Feature Freeze: April 13, 2026
• Code Freeze / Release Candidate: May 4, 2026
• Release Date: May 14, 2026 (scheduled)

Patch Releases

N/A

Release Managers

• Petr McAllister - Solo.io (PetrMc)
• Jacek Ewertowski - Red Hat (jewertow)
• Jackson Greer - Microsoft (jgreeer)

How do I get my changes into the release?

On April 13, the primary release manager creates the release-1.30 branch from master. Changes merged to master before this date are included; later changes require cherry-picking.

To merge a PR into the release branch:

1. The PR must first merge into master
2. Add the cherrypick/release-1.30 label for automatic cherry-picking
3. Approval requires:
   • The change already exists on master (exception: release-branch-only changes noted in PR description)
   • The change is a bug fix, documentation enhancement, or testing enhancement
   • Risky changes may need feature flags post-1.30.0 release
   • New features or APIs may require TOC approval

See RELEASE_BRANCHES.md for detailed policies.

Release Preparation Issue: #59425

Note: On the istio.io repo, changes should go directly to master until after 1.30 launch, appearing on preliminary.istio.io.