Swift 6.3 Release Process

Development Announcements
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Swift 6.3 Release Process

This post describes the release process, and estimated schedule for Swift 6.3.

Snapshots of Swift 6.3

Downloadable snapshots of the Swift 6.3 release branch will be posted regularly as part of continuous integration testing. As support is available, snapshot downloads will be added for newly supported platforms.

Once Swift 6.3 is released, the official final builds will also be posted in addition to the snapshots.

Getting Changes into Swift 6.3

On November 12th, 2025 the release/6.3 branch will be cut from main in the swift repository and related project repositories. This will contain the changes that will be released in Swift 6.3. After the branch is cut, changes can be landed on the branch via pull request if they meet the criteria for the release.

Philosophy on Taking Changes into Swift 6.3

  • All language and API changes for Swift 6.3 will go through the Swift Evolution process. Evolution proposals should aim to be completed by the branch date in order to increase their chances of impacting the Swift 6.3 release. Exceptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis, particularly if they tie in with the core goal of the release.
  • Other changes (e.g., bug fixes, diagnostic improvements, SourceKit interface improvements) will be accepted based on their risk and impact.
  • Low-risk test tweaks will also be accepted late into the release branch if it aids in the qualification of the release.
  • As the release converges, the criteria for accepted changes will become increasingly restrictive.

Impacted Repositories

The following repositories will have a release/6.3 branch to track
sources as part of Swift 6.3 release:

The llvm-project will have a corresponding swift/release/6.3 branch from stable/21.x.

Release Managers

The overall management of the release will be overseen by the following individuals, who will announce when stricter control of change goes into effect for the Swift 6.3 release as the release converges.

Platform Release Managers

Please feel free to post on the development forum or contact Ted Kremenek directly concerning any questions about the release management process.

Pull Requests for Release Branch

In order for a pull request to be considered for inclusion in the release branch (release/6.3 ) after it has been cut, the pull request must have:

  • A title starting with a designation containing the release version number of the target branch.
  • This form filled out in its description. An item that is not applicable may be left blank or completed with an indication thereof, but must not be omitted altogether.

To switch to this template when drafting a pull request in a swiftlang repository in a browser, append the template=release.md query parameter to the current URL and refresh. For example:

-https://github.com/swiftlang/swift/compare/main...my-branch?quick_pull=1
+https://github.com/swiftlang/swift/compare/main...my-branch?quick_pull=1&template=release.md

All changes going on the release/6.3 branch must go through pull requests that are accepted by the corresponding release manager.

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Embedded Swift Improvements Coming in Swift 6.3
Possible miscompiles in OptimizeHopToExecutor
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Once again I see FreeBSD listed in the supported platforms list, but I still have not seen a FreeBSD 6.2 release. Did I miss it? If not, what is happening?

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We are actively working on supporting FreeBSD. The community has made great progress. However, we still have a few more issues to resolve before publishing the toolchains on swift.org

GitHub Project board: Swift on FreeBSD · GitHub

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Thanks for the great work. Trying to get some sense as to how much longer we should expect to wait for remaining items? Is this another month’s worth of work? Three months? Longer? I ask as I have a few projects that I want to deploy on FreeBSD and I would like to understand if I can wait or if I will need to look at Linux for deployment.

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Have you tried the existing FreeBSD port for Swift 5.10?

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I have not tried it, as the project has been on Swift 6 for over a year and I have not checked to see if it will compile on 5.10.

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@MajorTom Swift on FreeBSD Preview

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May I ask when the expected release date for Swift 6.3 is

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Apple won't tell you, but based on past years, it should come with the spring OS and Xcode releases, usually sometime in March.

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Does anyone know when there will be work done on space optimization? How do I put my Swift libraries on a diet?

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You may want to start a new thread to ask your question.

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Is there an ETA for a Swift 6.3 GitHub Release?

Thanks.

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It was updated a few days ago. Please let me know if you still see any issues. Thanks.

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@mishal_shah Thanks for the info.

Homebrew Core tried to auto bump the swift formula to 6.3.

The build for the PR is failing on macOS 14.

Is it possible for macOS 14 to build Swift 6.3?

If so, do you know how to fix the build errors?

I've never tried to build the Swift compiler itself, so I don't want to go down a rabbit hole if you or someone else can fix it quickly.

Thanks.

My original post about the Homebrew Core swift 6.3 formula bump is:

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The homebrew version isn't part of the official release process. Really the only support installation method is through swiftly, though I don't recommend that for macOS. Just use Xcode.

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@Jon_Shier Thanks for the recommendation of swiftly.

It looks like swiftly can be installed on macOS 14 & 15 via Homebrew Core, then install Swift 6.3.0. I haven't yet attempted to use the Swift 6.3.0 that was installed by swiftly on those macOS versions yet, but I assume that it will work.

If possible, it would still be nicer to just install Swift 6.3.0 directly via a Homebrew Core bottle instead of needing to install swiftly to install Swift 6.3.0, so, if anyone can fix the formula build, it would still be useful.

I personally use Swift 6.3 from Xcode 26.4, but a tool that I work on is primarily distributed via Homebrew Core, which requires that a formula build on the macOS version to which it will be deployed (it's a Homebrew requirement that I cannot change). A formula cannot be built on a newer macOS and then deployed on an older macOS.

I am able to use Swift 6.2.4 by building with Xcode swift on macOS 15+ & with the Homebrew Core swift formula swift on macOS 14. I was similarly trying to upgrade my code to Swift 6.3, which will require building with the Homebrew Core swift formula swift on both macOS 14 & 15.

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I'll also add that the Swift Homebrew formula is depended on by dozens of other Homebrew packages on both macOS and Linux (like vapor, swift-protobuf, swift-format, and others). So until Swift 6.3 can be built for both platforms, I think all those projects are going to remain stuck on an older version, at least when installed via Homebrew/Linuxbrew.

Even if Homebrew isn't an officially "supported" channel, I do think that assistance ought to be offered toward facilitating the distribution of the latest version, the same as we might for Debian or any other package manager or distribution that has a policy of building their packages from source.

though I don't recommend that for macOS. Just use Xcode.

The various cross-compilation SDKs like the Swift SDK for Android do not work with Xcode's Swift — they require the OSS host toolchain.

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