prep release: v2.11.0

[abernix]

Note

When approved, this PR will merge into the 2.11.0 branch which will — upon being approved itself — merge into main.

Things to review in this PR:

• Changelog correctness (There is a preview below, but it is not necessarily the most up to date. See the Files Changed for the true reality.)
• Version bumps
• That it targets the right release branch (2.11.0 in this case!).

---

🚀 Features

Support client awareness metadata via HTTP headers (PR #8503)

Clients can now send library name and version metadata for client awareness and enhanced client awareness using HTTP headers. This provides a consistent transport mechanism instead of splitting values between headers and request.extensions.

By @calvincestari in #8503

Reload OCI artifacts when a tag reference changes (PR #8805)

You can now configure tag-based OCI references in the router. When you use a tag reference such as artifacts.apollographql.com/my-org/my-graph:prod, the router polls and reloads when that tag points to a new artifact.

This also applies to automatically generated variant tags and custom tags.

By @graytonio in #8805

Add memory limit option for cooperative cancellation (PR #8808)

The router now supports a memory_limit option on experimental_cooperative_cancellation to cap memory allocations during query planning. When the memory limit is exceeded, the router:

• In enforce mode, cancels query planning and returns an error to the client.
• In measure mode, records the cancellation outcome in metrics and allows query planning to complete.

The memory limit works alongside the existing timeout option. Whichever limit is reached first triggers cancellation.

This feature is only available on Unix platforms when the global-allocator feature is enabled and dhat-heap is not enabled.

Example configuration:

supergraph:
  query_planning:
    experimental_cooperative_cancellation:
      enabled: true
      mode: enforce  # or "measure" to only record metrics
      memory_limit: 50mb  # Supports formats like "50mb", "1gb", "1024kb", etc.
      timeout: 5s  # Optional: can be combined with memory_limit

By @rohan-b99 in #8808

Add memory tracking metrics for requests (PR #8717)

The router now emits two histogram metrics to track memory allocation activity during request processing:

• apollo.router.request.memory: Memory activity across the full request lifecycle (including parsing, validation, query planning, and plugins)
• apollo.router.query_planner.memory: Memory activity for query planning work in the compute job thread pool

Each metric includes:

• allocation.type: allocated, deallocated, zeroed, or reallocated
• context: The tracking context name (for example, router.request or query_planning)

This feature is only available on Unix platforms when the global-allocator feature is enabled and dhat-heap is not enabled.

By @rohan-b99 in #8717

🐛 Fixes

Support nullable @key fields in response caching (PR #8767)

Response caching can now use nullable @key fields. Previously, the response caching feature rejected nullable @key fields, which prevented caching in schemas that use them.

When you cache data keyed by nullable fields, keep your cache keys simple and avoid ambiguous null values.

By @aaronArinder in #8767

Return 429 instead of 503 when enforcing a rate limit (PR #8765)

In v2.0.0, the router changed the rate-limiting error from 429 (TOO_MANY_REQUESTS) to 503 (SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE). This change restores 429 to align with the router error documentation.

By @carodewig in #8765

Add status code and error type attributes to http_request spans (PR #8775)

The router now always adds the http.response.status_code attribute to http_request spans (for example, for router -> subgraph requests). The router also conditionally adds error.type for non-success status codes.

By @rohan-b99 in #8775

Report response cache invalidation failures as errors (PR #8813)

The router now returns an error when response cache invalidation fails. Previously, an invalidation attempt could fail without being surfaced as an error.

After you upgrade, you might see an increase in the apollo.router.operations.response_cache.invalidation.error metric.

By @bnjjj in #8813

Reuse response cache Redis connections for identical subgraph configuration (PR #8764)

The response cache now reuses Redis connection pools when subgraph-level configuration resolves to the same Redis configuration as the global all setting. Previously, the router could create redundant Redis connections even when the effective configuration was identical.

Impact: If you configure response caching at both the global and subgraph levels, you should see fewer Redis connections and lower connection overhead.

By @bnjjj in #8764

Prevent TLS connections from hanging when a handshake stalls (PR #8779)

The router listener loop no longer blocks while waiting for a TLS handshake to complete. Use server.http.tls_handshake_timeout to control how long the router waits before terminating a connection (default: 10s).

By @rohan-b99 in #8779

Emit cardinality overflow metrics for more OpenTelemetry error formats (PR #8740)

The router now emits the apollo.router.telemetry.metrics.cardinality_overflow metric for additional OpenTelemetry cardinality overflow error formats.

By @bonnici in #8740

Propagate trace context on WebSocket upgrade requests (PR #8739)

The router now injects trace propagation headers into the initial HTTP upgrade request when it opens WebSocket connections to subgraphs. This preserves distributed trace continuity between the router and subgraph services.

Trace propagation happens during the HTTP handshake only. After the WebSocket connection is established, headers cannot be added to individual messages.

By @theJC in #8739

Stop query planning compute jobs when the parent task is canceled (PR #8741)

Query planning compute jobs now stop when cooperative cancellation cancels the parent task.

By @rohan-b99 in #8741

Reject invalidation requests with unknown fields (PR #8752)

The response cache invalidation endpoint now rejects request payloads that include unknown fields. When unknown fields are present, the router returns HTTP 400 (Bad Request).

By @bnjjj in #8752

Restore plugin access to SubscriptionTaskParams in execution::Request builders (PR #8771)

Plugins and other external crates can use SubscriptionTaskParams with execution::Request builders again. This restores compatibility for plugin unit tests that construct subscription requests.

By @aaronArinder in #8771

Support JWT tokens with multiple audiences (PR #8780)

When issuers or audiences is included in the router's JWK configuration, the router will check each request's JWT for iss or aud and reject requests with mismatches.

Expected behavior:

• If present, the iss claim must be specified as a string.
  • ✅ The JWK's issuers is empty.
  • ✅ The iss is a string and is present in the JWK's issuers.
  • ✅ The iss is null.
  • ❌ The iss is a string but is not present in the JWK's issuers.
  • ❌ The iss is not a string or null.
• If present, the aud claim can be specified as either a string or an array of strings.
  • ✅ The JWK's audiences is empty.
  • ✅ The aud is a string and is present in the JWK's audiences.
  • ✅ The aud is an array of strings and at least one of those strings is present in the JWK's audiences.
  • ❌ The aud is not a string or array of strings (i.e., null).

Behavior prior to this change:

• If the iss was not null or a string, it was permitted (regardless of its value).
• If the aud was an array, it was rejected (regardless of its value).

By @carodewig in #8780

Enforce feature restrictions for warning-state licenses (PR #8768)

The router now enforces license restrictions even when a license is in a warning state. Previously, warning-state licenses could bypass enforcement for restricted features.

If your deployment uses restricted features, the router returns an error instead of continuing to run.

By @aaronArinder in #8768

🛠 Maintenance

Warn at startup when OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT is set (PR #8729)

The router now displays a warning at startup if the OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT environment variable is set. This variable takes precedence over default configurations and can override trace export to Apollo Studio, so the warning helps you identify when telemetry data might not be sent where expected.

By @apollo-mateuswgoettems in #8729

Increase Redis 'unresponsive' check frequency (PR #8763)

Perform the 'unresponsive' check every two seconds. This aligns with the Redis client's guideline that the check interval should be less than half the timeout value.

By @carodewig in #8763

📚 Documentation

Fix subscription licensing discrepancy in documentation (PR #8726)

Corrected the subscription support documentation to reflect that subscriptions are available on all GraphOS plans (Free, Developer, Standard, and Enterprise) with self-hosted routers.

The documentation previously stated that subscription support was an Enterprise-only feature for self-hosted routers, which was incorrect. Subscriptions are a licensed feature available to all GraphOS plans when the router is connected to GraphOS with an API key and graph ref.

Updated both the configuration and overview pages to remove the misleading Enterprise-only requirement and clarify the actual requirements.

By @gigi in #8726

Clarify traffic shaping compression headers in documentation (PR #8773)

The traffic shaping documentation now clearly explains how the router handles HTTP compression headers for subgraph requests. It clarifies that content-encoding is set when compression is configured via traffic_shaping, while accept-encoding is automatically set on all subgraph requests to indicate the router can accept compressed responses (gzip, br, or deflate). The documentation also notes that these headers are added after requests are added to the debug stack, so they won't appear in the Connectors Debugger.

By @gigi in #8773

Document default histogram buckets and their relationship to timeout settings (PR #8783)

The documentation now explains how histogram bucket configuration affects timeout monitoring in Prometheus and other metrics exporters.

The documentation now includes:

• Default bucket values: The router's default histogram buckets (0.001 to 10.0 seconds)
• Timeout behavior: Histogram metrics cap values at the highest bucket boundary, which can make timeouts appear ignored if they exceed ten seconds
• Customization guidance: Configure custom buckets via telemetry.exporters.metrics.common.buckets to match your timeout settings

This update helps users understand why their timeout metrics may not behave as expected and provides clear guidance on customizing buckets for applications with longer timeout configurations.

By @the-gigi-apollo in #8783

[apollo-librarian]

✅ Docs preview ready

The preview is ready to be viewed. View the preview

File Changes

2 new, 8 changed, 0 removed

+ graphos/routing/(latest)/configuration/deployment-strategies.mdx
+ graphos/routing/(latest)/configuration/schema-oci.mdx
* graphos/routing/(latest)/uplink.mdx
* graphos/routing/(latest)/cloud/migrate-to-self-hosted.mdx
* graphos/routing/(latest)/configuration/envvars.mdx
* graphos/routing/(latest)/configuration/hot-reload-schema.mdx
* graphos/routing/(latest)/configuration/overview.mdx
* graphos/routing/(latest)/observability/router-telemetry-otel/enabling-telemetry/standard-instruments.mdx
* graphos/routing/(latest)/self-hosted/index.mdx
* graphos/routing/(latest)/_sidebar.yaml

Build ID: a1c2db8ee65ca407ea3aefaa
Build Logs: View logs

URL: https://www.apollographql.com/docs/deploy-preview/a1c2db8ee65ca407ea3aefaa