How many more years of beta releases for v5?

[kamyarkaviani]

Are there any plans to release the next-auth v5 in the foreseeable future? It's been three years of beta releases, is this thing ever going to hit release candidate phase in our lifetime?

[ali3825]

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Auth.js (formerly NextAuth.js) v5 has effectively been the actively maintained version for a while, even though it remains labeled as beta. The “beta” tag here reflects ongoing API refinements and ecosystem stabilization rather than inactivity or abandonment.

The core APIs are already widely used in production, and most new development effort is focused on v5 rather than v4. Instead of waiting for a “stable” tag, it’s generally recommended to evaluate whether the current v5 APIs meet your needs and follow the migration guide if you’re upgrading.

If you’re concerned about long-term stability, you can:

• Pin to a specific beta version instead of using latest
• Review the changelog for breaking changes
• Follow the repository discussions for release planning updates

At this point, v5 is the forward-looking path, even if the version label hasn’t dropped the beta tag yet.

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[kamyarkaviani]

I get that v5 is effectively the version people are using, but that’s exactly why the “beta for 3+ years” situation is confusing.

If the APIs are widely used in production and most development is happening on v5, then it sounds like it’s already functionally stable. At that point the beta label starts to feel misleading rather than cautious.

A stable tag isn’t about guaranteeing zero future changes; more so, it’s about signaling that the project has reached a level of maturity the maintainers are comfortable standing behind. Every major library still evolves after 1.0.

So the question is what criteria are still blocking a stable release? If it’s good enough for production, it seems like it should be good enough for a stable tag. The ecosystem would benefit from that clarity.