This is a minor release adding new features and bug fixes. There are no breaking changes; upgrading from 9.20.x is a drop-in replacement.

Two new StringCmdable methods let callers read and write Redis string values directly into and from pre-allocated byte buffers, eliminating the per-call payload allocation that Get/Set incur:

GetToBuffer(ctx, key, buf) *ZeroCopyStringCmd   // reads into buf; ZeroCopyStringCmd { Val() int; Bytes() []byte; Result() (int, error) }
SetFromBuffer(ctx, key, buf) *StatusCmd

GetToBuffer decodes the bulk reply straight into the caller-owned buf (no intermediate allocation); a buffer that is too small returns an error after draining the payload, so the connection stays aligned for the next reply. SetFromBuffer is provided for API symmetry — it dispatches to the same []byte writer path as Set(ctx, key, buf, 0) and produces byte-identical output on the wire. Available on *Client, *ClusterClient, *Ring, *Conn and Pipeliner.

(#3834) by @ndyakov

Redis treats XTRIM/XADD approximate-trim (~) LIMIT 0 as "disable the trimming effort cap entirely", which differs from omitting LIMIT (the implicit 100 * stream-node-max-entries default). The command builders previously only emitted LIMIT when limit > 0, so callers could never send an explicit LIMIT 0. Following the KeepTTL = -1 precedent, the new XTrimLimitDisabled = -1 sentinel now emits an explicit LIMIT 0; limit == 0 keeps the historical no-LIMIT behavior, so existing callers produce byte-identical commands.

(#3848) by @TheRealMal

• Zero-copy buffer string commands: new GetToBuffer / SetFromBuffer on StringCmdable and the ZeroCopyStringCmd result type, reading/writing string values into caller-owned buffers without per-call payload allocation (#3834) by @ndyakov
• XTrimLimitDisabled sentinel: XTRIM/XADD approximate trimming can now send an explicit LIMIT 0 to disable the trim effort cap, via the new XTrimLimitDisabled = -1 sentinel (#3848) by @TheRealMal
• PubSub health-check timeouts: channel.initHealthCheck now bounds the Ping it issues with a fresh per-check timeout context (the exported pingTimeout / reconnectTimeout) instead of context.TODO(), so a stuck health-check Ping can no longer block indefinitely (#3819) by @abdellani
• Skip redundant UNWATCH in Tx.Close: a transaction now tracks whether a WATCH is still active (watchArmed) and only issues UNWATCH on Close when it is, removing an extra round trip on the common WATCH/.../EXEC and no-key Watch paths while never returning a connection to the pool with an active watch (#3854) by @fcostaoliveira

• maintnotifications ModeAuto fail-open: ModeAuto now stays fail-open when the server does not support maintenance notifications — connections are retired and tracking is guarded during downgrade so the client keeps working instead of erroring (#3853) by @terrorobe

We'd like to thank all the contributors who worked on this release!

@abdellani, @fcostaoliveira, @ndyakov, @terrorobe, @TheRealMal

This is a patch release containing bug fixes only. There are no new features or breaking changes; upgrading from 9.20.0 is a drop-in replacement.

PeekPushNotificationName previously inspected only the bytes already buffered by bufio, so when a push frame header straddled a buffer fill boundary it could return a truncated notification name (e.g. "messa" instead of "message"). The push processor then mis-routed the frame and ReadReply silently dropped it, causing intermittent RESP3 pub/sub message loss. The peek now grows its window (36 bytes → up to 4 KiB) and reads more from the connection until the header is complete, cleanly separating incomplete prefixes from corrupt frames (including overflow-safe bulk-length handling). Fixes #3839.

(#3842) by @ndyakov

• RESP3 push peeking: PeekPushNotificationName no longer returns a truncated notification name when a push frame header spans a buffer boundary, preventing silent RESP3 pub/sub message loss (fixes #3839) (#3842) by @ndyakov
• FT.HYBRID vector params: Vector data is now always sent via PARAMS with auto-generated param names (__vector_param_N, with collision avoidance) when VectorParamName is omitted, since Redis no longer accepts inline vector blobs; the FTHybridOptions.Params map is no longer mutated, so the same options struct can be reused across calls (#3844) by @ndyakov
• CLUSTER SHARDS forward compatibility: Unknown shard- and node-level attributes in the CLUSTER SHARDS reply are now skipped via DiscardNext() instead of erroring, so clients keep working when the server introduces new fields (#3843) by @madolson
• PubSub double reconnect: PubSub.releaseConn no longer reconnects twice when a connection is both unusable (or pending handoff) and reports a bad-connection error, avoiding a wasted connection establish-then-close cycle (#3833) by @cxljs

We'd like to thank all the contributors who worked on this release!

@cxljs, @madolson, @ndyakov

Full Changelog: https://github.com/redis/go-redis/compare/v9.20.0...v9.20.1

This release adds support for Redis 8.8. The README's supported-versions list now includes Redis 8.8 alongside 8.0/8.2/8.4, and CI exercises the 8.8 client-libs-test image across the full suite (Makefile, build workflow, doctests, run-tests action, and docker-compose).

Coverage for the new commands that ship in the 8.x line, rounded out in this release:

• AR* array data type (#3813) — new array data structure, exposed via the ArrayCmdable interface (see the experimental-features highlight below).
• INCREX (#3816) — atomic increment with expiration in a single round-trip.
• XNACK (#3790) — explicit negative-acknowledge of pending stream entries.
• XAUTOCLAIM PEL deletes (#3798) — XAUTOCLAIM/XAUTOCLAIMJUSTID now return the list of deleted message IDs from the pending entries list.
• TS.RANGE multiple aggregators (#3791) — TS.RANGE/TS.REVRANGE/TS.MRANGE/TS.MREVRANGE accept multiple aggregators in a single call.
• Z(UNION|INTER|DIFF) COUNT aggregator (#3802) — COUNT reducer for sorted-set set operations.
• JSON.SET FPHA (#3797) — new FPHA argument that specifies the floating-point type for homogeneous FP arrays.

CI image bump (#3814) by @ofekshenawa. Command coverage contributions by @cxljs, @elena-kolevska, @Khukharr, @ndyakov, and @ofekshenawa.

FT.SEARCH, FT.AGGREGATE, FT.INFO, FT.SPELLCHECK, and FT.SYNDUMP now parse RESP3 (map) responses into the same typed result objects as RESP2 — Val() and Result() work uniformly on both protocols, no flag required. Previously, RESP3 search responses required UnstableResp3: true and were returned as opaque maps accessible only via RawResult() / RawVal().

As a result, the UnstableResp3 option is now a no-op across every options struct (Options, ClusterOptions, UniversalOptions, FailoverOptions, RingOptions) and has been marked // Deprecated:. The field is retained for backwards compatibility — existing code that sets UnstableResp3: true will continue to compile and behave identically — but it will be removed in a future release and new code should not set it. RawResult() / RawVal() continue to work for callers that prefer the raw RESP payload.

(#3741) by @ndyakov

Adds an experimental ArrayCmdable interface with the AR* command family (ARSet, ARGet, ARGetRange, ARMSet, ARMGet, ARDel, ARDelRange, ARScan, ARSeek, ARNext, ARLastItems, ARGrep, ARGrepWithValues, ARInfo/ARInfoFull, and typed reducers AROpSum/AROpMin/AROpMax/AROpAnd/AROpOr/AROpXor/AROpMatch/AROpUsed) for working with Redis 8.8's new array data type. API is experimental and may change in a future release.

(#3813) by @cxljs

• RESP3 search parser: First-class RESP3 parsing for FT.SEARCH/FT.AGGREGATE/FT.INFO/FT.SPELLCHECK/FT.SYNDUMP responses with backwards compatibility for RESP2 (#3741) by @ndyakov
• INCREX: New INCREX command support — atomic increment with expiration (#3816) by @ndyakov
• XNACK: Client support for the XNACK stream command for explicitly negative-acknowledging pending entries (#3790) by @elena-kolevska
• TS range multiple aggregators: TS.RANGE/TS.REVRANGE/TS.MRANGE/TS.MREVRANGE now accept multiple aggregators in a single call (#3791) by @elena-kolevska
• XAutoClaim deleted IDs: XAUTOCLAIM/XAUTOCLAIMJUSTID now return the list of deleted message IDs from the PEL (#3798) by @Khukharr
• JSON.SET FPHA: JSON.SET accepts a new FPHA argument that specifies the floating-point type for homogeneous floating-point arrays (#3797) by @ndyakov
• Sorted-set union/intersection COUNT: ZUNION/ZINTER/ZDIFF aggregator now supports COUNT (#3802) by @ofekshenawa
• FT.HYBRID vector validation: Validates hybrid-search vector input types and adds proper typed vector parameters (#3756) by @DengY11
• Cluster pool wait stats: ClusterClient.PoolStats() now accumulates WaitCount and WaitDurationNs across all node pools (previously always zero) (#3809) by @LINKIWI

• TLS-only Cluster PubSub: CLUSTER SLOTS port-0 entries now fall back to the origin endpoint's port, fixing dial tcp <ip>:0: connection refused on TLS-only clusters started with --port 0 --tls-port <port> (fixes #3726) (#3828) by @ndyakov
• Sharded PubSub reconnect routing: PubSub.conn() now passes both regular (c.channels) and sharded (c.schannels) channels into the per-PubSub newConn closure. Previously, ClusterClient.SSubscribe-only PubSubs reconnected to a random node (because the routing closure saw an empty channel list), the SSUBSCRIBE was sent to the wrong shard, and the resulting MOVED reply was silently dropped (#3829) by @ndyakov
• ClusterClient Watch retry: User errors returned from a Watch callback are no longer subjected to cluster-retry classification; transient cluster errors still retry, but a callback returning e.g. net.ErrClosed short-circuits immediately (#3821) by @obiyang
• Sentinel concurrent-probe leak: MasterAddr's concurrent sentinel probe now closes the non-winning sentinel clients instead of leaking them (#3827) by @cxljs
• Sentinel rediscovery loop on master-only setups: replicaAddrs no longer tears down the cached sentinel client when the replica list is empty, eliminating a continuous rediscovery loop on master-only Sentinel deployments that flooded logs and added per-operation latency (#3795) by @shahyash2609
• Pool CloseConn hooks: Pool.CloseConn now triggers registered hooks, fixing a memory leak when connections are closed explicitly rather than via the normal removal path (#3818) by @ndyakov
• Dial TCP error redirection: Wrapped dial tcp errors are now correctly classified as redirectable so cluster routing can recover from a single unreachable node (#3810) by @vladisa88
• Pool Close health checks: ConnPool.Close now only runs health checks against idle connections, avoiding spurious activity on connections still in use (#3805) by @ndyakov
• VLinks return type: Fixed the return type of VLINKS/VLINKSWITHSCORES vector-set replies (#3820) by @romanpovol

• Flaky tests: Stabilized several flaky tests in the sentinel and pool suites (#3815) by @ndyakov
• Sentinel failover metric race: Fixed a data race in the sentinel failover metric test (#3824) by @cxljs
• waitForSentinelClusterStable post-conditions: The sentinel test harness now waits for replicas to be fully connected (not just present in the count) and is robust to randomized spec ordering after failover specs, eliminating an intermittent Expected master to equal slave flake (#3830) by @ndyakov
• govulncheck workflow: New scheduled GitHub Actions workflow runs govulncheck on every push, PR, and weekly, surfacing newly disclosed Go vulnerabilities even when no code changes (#3779) by @solardome
• CI Redis 8.8-rc1: CI now exercises the 8.8-rc1 Redis image (#3814) by @ofekshenawa

• Cmd.Slot() lookup refactor: Caches the per-command CommandInfo and short-circuits keyless commands before the switch dispatch, removing redundant Peek calls (#3804) by @retr0-kernel
• stdlib math/rand: Replaced internal/rand with math/rand from the standard library now that the minimum Go version is 1.24 (#3823) by @cxljs
• ConnPool queue channel: Removed the unused queue channel from ConnPool, trimming the pool's footprint (#3826) by @cxljs
• Extra packages LICENSE: Added a LICENSE file to each extra/* package (#3817) by @ndyakov
• README & CI image: Documentation refresh and bumped the default CI image tag (#3822) by @ndyakov

We'd like to thank all the contributors who worked on this release!

@cxljs, @DengY11, @elena-kolevska, @Khukharr, @LINKIWI, @ndyakov, @obiyang, @ofekshenawa, @retr0-kernel, @romanpovol, @shahyash2609, @solardome, @vladisa88

Full Changelog: https://github.com/redis/go-redis/compare/v9.19.0...v9.20.0

Script now supports a FIPS-safe execution mode that avoids client-side SHA-1 computation, which is blocked in strict FIPS environments. A new NewScriptServerSHA constructor uses SCRIPT LOAD to obtain and cache the digest from the server, then runs commands via EVALSHA/EVALSHA_RO. Falls back to EVAL/EVALRO if loading fails, and transparently retries once on NOSCRIPT. The default behavior is unchanged for existing users.

(#3700) by @chaitanyabodlapati

Added a new step-based FT.AGGREGATE pipeline API via FTAggregateOptions.Steps, allowing LOAD, APPLY, GROUPBY, and SORTBY (with per-step MAX) to be repeated and interleaved in arbitrary order — matching Redis's native multi-stage aggregation semantics. The legacy Load/Apply/GroupBy/SortBy/SortByMax fields are now deprecated.

(#3782) by @ndyakov

Added DoRaw and DoRawWriteTo methods for executing arbitrary commands and reading the raw RESP response. Useful for proxying, custom protocol inspection, and working with commands not yet wrapped by go-redis.

(#3713) by @ofekshenawa

Added DialerRetryBackoff option (plumbed through Options, ClusterOptions, RingOptions, FailoverOptions) to let callers customize the delay between failed dial attempts. Helpers DialRetryBackoffConstant and DialRetryBackoffExponential (with jitter and cap) are provided out of the box. Dial timeout is now also applied per attempt rather than across all retries.

(#3706, #3705) by @mwhooker

• FT.AGGREGATE Steps: Step-based pipeline builder for FT.AGGREGATE with support for repeated/interleaved LOAD, APPLY, GROUPBY, and SORTBY stages (#3782) by @ndyakov
• VectorSet commands: Added VISMEMBER and WITHATTRIBS support (#3753) by @romanpovol
• FIPS-safe Script: NewScriptServerSHA uses SCRIPT LOAD to obtain the digest from the server, avoiding client-side SHA-1 (#3700) by @chaitanyabodlapati
• Raw RESP access: DoRaw and DoRawWriteTo for raw RESP protocol access (#3713) by @ofekshenawa
• Dial retry backoff: DialerRetryBackoff function option with constant and exponential helpers (#3706) by @mwhooker
• Typed NOSCRIPT error: Redis NOSCRIPT replies are now surfaced as a typed error for easier handling (#3738) by @LINKIWI
• PubSub ClientSetName: Added ClientSetName method to PubSub (#3727) by @Flack74
• ReplicaOf: New ReplicaOf method replaces the deprecated SlaveOf (#3720) by @Copilot
• HSCAN BinaryUnmarshaler: HScan now supports types implementing encoding.BinaryUnmarshaler (#3768) by @Aaditya-dubey1

• Auto hostname type detection: Improved endpoint type detection for maintenance notifications using DNS-based classification; handles empty hosts and expanded private-IP ranges (#3789) by @ndyakov
• HELLO fallback: Don't send CLIENT MAINT_NOTIFICATIONS handshake when HELLO fails and connection falls back to RESP2; fail fast when explicitly enabled with RESP3 (#3788) by @ndyakov
• Dial TCP retry: ShouldRetry now treats net.OpError with Op == "dial" timeout errors as safe to retry since no command was sent (#3787) by @vladisa88
• wrappedOnClose leak: Fixed resource leak caused by repeatedly wrapping baseClient close logic; replaced with a bounded, concurrency-safe named-hook registry (#3785) by @ndyakov
• Pool Close() on stale connections: Suppress close errors (e.g., TLS closeNotify timeouts) for connections already dropped by the server due to idle timeout (#3778) by @ofekshenawa
• FIFO waiter ordering: Fixed race in ConnStateMachine.notifyWaiters that could wake multiple waiters under a single mutex hold and violate FIFO ordering (#3777) by @0x48core
• Lua READONLY detection: Detect READONLY errors embedded in Lua script error messages on read-only replicas so commands are correctly retried (#3769) by @zhengjilei
• VectorScoreSliceCmd RESP2: Fixed VSimWithScores, VSimWithArgsWithScores, and VLinksWithScores which were broken on RESP2 connections returning flat arrays instead of maps (#3767) by @Copilot
• Closed connection handling: Two fixes for closed connection handling in the pool (#3764) by @cxljs
• ZRangeArgs Rev: Fixed ZRangeArgs with Rev + ByScore/ByLex incorrectly swapping Start/Stop, breaking ZRANGESTORE (#3751) by @Copilot
• OTel metric instrument types: Fixed metric instrument types in redisotel-native (#3743) by @ofekshenawa
• Options.clone() data race: Fixed data race when cloning Options (#3739) by @rubensayshi
• Connection closure metrics: Fixed connection closure metrics and enabled all metric groups by default in redisotel-native (#3735) by @ofekshenawa
• OTel semconv v1.38.0: Use metric definition from otel/semconv/v1.38.0 in redisotel-native (#3731) by @wzy9607
• SETNX semantics: Use SET ... NX instead of the deprecated SETNX command (#3723) by @ndyakov
• TIME keyless routing: Mark TIME as a keyless command for correct cluster routing (#3722) by @fatal10110
• Dial timeout per retry: Dial timeout now applies per attempt instead of across all retry attempts combined (#3705) by @mwhooker
• Cluster metrics attributes: Fixed pool.name being appended per node, which corrupted and dropped user-provided custom attributes (#3699) by @Jesse-Bonfire
• initConn nil dereference: Fixed nil pointer dereference and potential deadlock in *baseClient.initConn(); added explicit nil option guards to client constructors (#3676) by @olde-ducke

• RESP reader: Optimized RESP reader by eliminating intermediate string allocations (#3774) by @Aaditya-dubey1
• Inline rendezvous hashing: Replaced github.com/dgryski/go-rendezvous dependency with an in-repo implementation in internal/hashtag, reducing the dependency graph while preserving algorithm parity (#3762) by @bigsk05

• Release automation: Added repository, ref, and client-libs-test-image-tag inputs to the run-tests composite action; redis-version is now optional so unstable builds use REDIS_VERSION from the Makefile (#3749) by @dariaguy
• Go 1.24: Updated minimum Go version to 1.24 and use -compat=1.24 in release scripts (#3714, #3754) by @ndyakov, @cxljs

• Pool state machine: Removed redundant Conn.closed atomic field in favor of the state machine's StateClosed (#3783) by @cxljs
• OTel SDK: Updated OpenTelemetry SDK dependencies in redisotel/redisotel-native (#3770) by @ndyakov
• Go 1.21+ built-ins: Use maps.Keys, slices.Collect, slices.Contains, clear(), and slices.SortFunc instead of custom helpers (#3758, #3746) by @cxljs
• HGetAll docs: Added Go doc comment to HGetAll describing behavior and complexity (#3776) by @0x48core
• Docs links: Fixed irrelevant docs links (#3724) by @olzhas-sabiyev
• Examples cleanup: Removed throughput binary from examples (#3733) by @ndyakov

We'd like to thank all the contributors who worked on this release!

@0x48core, @Aaditya-dubey1, @Copilot, @Flack74, @Jesse-Bonfire, @LINKIWI, @bigsk05, @chaitanyabodlapati, @cxljs, @dariaguy, @fatal10110, @mwhooker, @ndyakov, @ofekshenawa, @olde-ducke, @olzhas-sabiyev, @romanpovol, @rubensayshi, @vladisa88, @wzy9607, @zhengjilei

Full Changelog: https://github.com/redis/go-redis/compare/v9.18.0...v9.19.0

Added support for Redis 8.6, including new commands and features for streams idempotent production and HOTKEYS.

note: Pending RS version release

This release introduces comprehensive support for Redis Enterprise Cluster maintenance notifications via SMIGRATING/SMIGRATED push notifications. The client now automatically handles slot migrations by:

• Relaxing timeouts during migration (SMIGRATING) to prevent false failures
• Triggering lazy cluster state reloads upon completion (SMIGRATED)
• Enabling seamless operations during Redis Enterprise maintenance windows

(#3643) by @ndyakov

Added comprehensive OpenTelemetry metrics support following the OpenTelemetry Database Client Semantic Conventions. The implementation uses a Bridge Pattern to keep the core library dependency-free while providing optional metrics instrumentation through the new extra/redisotel-native package.

Metric groups include:

• Command metrics: Operation duration with retry tracking
• Connection basic: Connection count and creation time
• Resiliency: Errors, handoffs, timeout relaxation
• Connection advanced: Wait time and use time
• Pubsub metrics: Published and received messages
• Stream metrics: Processing duration and maintenance notifications

(#3637) by @ofekshenawa

• HOTKEYS Commands: Added support for Redis HOTKEYS feature for identifying hot keys based on CPU consumption and network utilization (#3695) by @ofekshenawa
• Streams Idempotent Production: Added support for Redis 8.6+ Streams Idempotent Production with ProducerID, IdempotentID, IdempotentAuto in XAddArgs and new XCFGSET command (#3693) by @ofekshenawa
• NaN Values for TimeSeries: Added support for NaN (Not a Number) values in Redis time series commands (#3687) by @ofekshenawa
• DialerRetries Options: Added DialerRetries and DialerRetryTimeout to ClusterOptions, RingOptions, and FailoverOptions (#3686) by @naveenchander30
• ConnMaxLifetimeJitter: Added jitter configuration to distribute connection expiration times and prevent thundering herd (#3666) by @cyningsun
• Digest Helper Functions: Added DigestString and DigestBytes helper functions for client-side xxh3 hashing compatible with Redis DIGEST command (#3679) by @ofekshenawa
• SMIGRATED New Format: Updated SMIGRATED parser to support new format and remember original host:port (#3697) by @ndyakov
• Cluster State Reload Interval: Added cluster state reload interval option for maintenance notifications (#3663) by @ndyakov

• PubSub nil pointer dereference: Fixed nil pointer dereference in PubSub after WithTimeout() - pubSubPool is now properly cloned (#3710) by @Copilot
• MaintNotificationsConfig nil check: Guard against nil MaintNotificationsConfig in initConn (#3707) by @veeceey
• wantConnQueue zombie elements: Fixed zombie wantConn elements accumulation in wantConnQueue (#3680) by @cyningsun
• XADD/XTRIM approx flag: Fixed XADD and XTRIM to use = when approx is false (#3684) by @ndyakov
• Sentinel timeout retry: When connection to a sentinel times out, attempt to connect to other sentinels (#3654) by @cxljs

• Fuzz test optimization: Eliminated repeated string conversions, used functional approach for cleaner operation selection (#3692) by @feiguoL
• Pre-allocate capacity: Pre-allocate slice capacity to prevent multiple capacity expansions (#3689) by @feelshu

• Comprehensive TLS tests: Added comprehensive TLS tests and example for standalone, cluster, and certificate authentication (#3681) by @ndyakov
• Redis 8.6: Updated CI to use Redis 8.6-pre (#3685) by @ndyakov

• Deprecation warnings: Added deprecation warnings for commands based on Redis documentation (#3673) by @ndyakov
• Use errors.Join(): Replaced custom error join function with standard library errors.Join() (#3653) by @cxljs
• Use Go 1.21 min/max: Use Go 1.21's built-in min/max functions (#3656) by @cxljs
• Proper formatting: Code formatting improvements (#3670) by @12ya
• Set commands documentation: Added comprehensive documentation to all set command methods (#3642) by @iamamirsalehi
• MaxActiveConns docs: Added default value documentation for MaxActiveConns (#3674) by @codykaup
• README example update: Updated README example (#3657) by @cxljs
• Cluster maintnotif example: Added example application for cluster maintenance notifications (#3651) by @ndyakov

We'd like to thank all the contributors who worked on this release!

@12ya, @Copilot, @codykaup, @cxljs, @cyningsun, @feelshu, @feiguoL, @iamamirsalehi, @naveenchander30, @ndyakov, @ofekshenawa, @veeceey

• Connection Pool: Fixed zombie wantConn elements accumulation in wantConnQueue that could cause resource leaks in high concurrency scenarios with dial failures (#3680) by @cyningsun
• Stream Commands: Fixed XADD and XTRIM commands to use exact threshold (=) when Approx is false, ensuring precise stream trimming behavior (#3684) by @ndyakov
• Connection Pool: Added ConnMaxLifetimeJitter configuration to distribute connection expiration times and prevent the thundering herd problem when many connections expire simultaneously (#3666) by @cyningsun
• Client Options: Added DialerRetries and DialerRetryTimeout fields to ClusterOptions, RingOptions, and FailoverOptions to allow configuring connection retry behavior for cluster, ring, and sentinel clients (#3686) by @naveenchander30

We'd like to thank all the contributors who worked on this release!

@cyningsun, @naveenchander30, and @ndyakov

Full Changelog: https://github.com/redis/go-redis/compare/v9.17.2...v9.17.3

This release updates the minimum required Go version to 1.21. This is part of a gradual migration strategy where the minimum supported Go version will be three versions behind the latest release. With each new Go version release, we will bump the minimum version by one, ensuring compatibility while staying current with the Go ecosystem.

This release includes several important stability fixes:

• Fixed a critical panic in the handoff worker manager that could occur when handling nil errors
• Improved test reliability for Smart Client Handoff functionality
• Fixed logging format issues that could cause runtime errors

• OpenTelemetry metrics improvements for nil response handling (#3638) by @fengve

• Fixed panic on nil error in handoffWorkerManager closeConnFromRequest (#3633) by @ccoVeille
• Fixed bad sprintf syntax in logging (#3632) by @ccoVeille

• Updated minimum Go version to 1.21 (#3640) by @ndyakov
• Use Go 1.20 idiomatic string<->byte conversion (#3435) by @justinhwang
• Reduce flakiness of Smart Client Handoff test (#3641) by @kiryazovi-redis
• Revert PR #3634 (Observability metrics phase1) (#3635) by @ofekshenawa

We'd like to thank all the contributors who worked on this release!

@justinhwang, @ndyakov, @kiryazovi-redis, @fengve, @ccoVeille, @ofekshenawa

This beta release introduces comprehensive support for Redis COMMAND-based request and response policy routing for cluster clients. This feature enables intelligent command routing and response aggregation based on Redis command metadata.

Key Features:

• Command Policy Loader: Automatically parses and caches COMMAND metadata with routing/aggregation hints
• Enhanced Routing Engine: Supports all request policies including:
  • default(keyless) - Commands without keys
  • default(hashslot) - Commands with hash slot routing
  • all_shards - Commands that need to run on all shards
  • all_nodes - Commands that need to run on all nodes
  • multi_shard - Commands that span multiple shards
  • special - Commands with custom routing logic
• Response Aggregator: Intelligently combines multi-shard replies based on response policies:
  • all_succeeded - All shards must succeed
  • one_succeeded - At least one shard must succeed
  • agg_sum - Aggregate numeric responses
  • special - Custom aggregation logic (e.g., FT.CURSOR)
• Raw Command Support: Policies are enforced on Client.Do(ctx, args...)

This feature is particularly useful for Redis Stack commands like RediSearch that need to operate across multiple shards in a cluster.

Fixed a critical defect in the connection pool's turn management mechanism that could lead to connection leaks under certain conditions. The fix ensures proper 1:1 correspondence between turns and connections.

• Request and Response Policy Based Routing in Cluster Mode (#3422) by @ofekshenawa

• Fixed connection pool turn management to prevent connection leaks (#3626) by @cyningsun

• chore(deps): bump rojopolis/spellcheck-github-actions from 0.54.0 to 0.55.0 (#3627)

We'd like to thank all the contributors who worked on this release!

@cyningsun, @ofekshenawa, @ndyakov

• Connection Pool: Fixed critical race condition in turn management that could cause connection leaks when dial goroutines complete after request timeout (#3626) by @cyningsun
• Context Timeout: Improved context timeout calculation to use minimum of remaining time and DialTimeout, preventing goroutines from waiting longer than necessary (#3626) by @cyningsun

• chore(deps): bump rojopolis/spellcheck-github-actions from 0.54.0 to 0.55.0 (#3627)

We'd like to thank all the contributors who worked on this release!

@cyningsun and @ndyakov

• add wait to keyless commands list (#3615) by @marcoferrer
• fix(time): remove cached time optimization (#3611) by @ndyakov

• chore(deps): bump golangci/golangci-lint-action from 9.0.0 to 9.1.0 (#3609)
• chore(deps): bump actions/checkout from 5 to 6 (#3610)
• chore(script): fix help call in tag.sh (#3606) by @ndyakov

We'd like to thank all the contributors who worked on this release!

@marcoferrer and @ndyakov