SOLANA·HUB
DE
Infrastructure

@solana/web3.js v3 becomes the npm default on 19 October

From 19 October, npm install of @solana/web3.js with no version pulls v3. On 17 October, latest is still 1.99.0. The docs say version 1.x gets critical fixes only.

SOLANA·HUB Editorial
Source: Solana Foundation

The npm latest tag

On 19 October, @solana/web3.js v3 becomes the npm latest tag. The v3.0.0 release notes say so. After that, npm install @solana/web3.js with no version installs v3.

On 17 October the npm registry still has latest at 1.99.0 and next at 3.1.0. v3.0.0 went out in the night of 2 October Berlin time, on the next tag. v3.1.0 followed on 15 October.

The 8 October changelog said installs still needed an explicit version, and that a later change would make v3 the default. The 19 October date is in the v3.0.0 notes.

The docs in the Solana Foundation repository keep the class-based API for v3. The internals run on Solana Kit. Kit itself is covered in the Solana Kit 6.9 report.

Version 1.x lives on the maintenance/v1.x branch. It is no longer actively maintained and receives critical fixes only.

On 17 October, Solana Developers posted a livestream on X titled “Relaunching Solana Web3.js.”

It is scheduled for 20 October at 2:00 a.m. Berlin. The stream had not started when the post went up.

Connection as a Kit client

v3.1.0 makes Connection a Kit client. The same instance can be passed to Anchor 2 and to Codama clients under @solana-program/*. A second RPC client is not required for that.

v3.0.0 added the package @solana/wallet-adapter. The notes list SIWS 1.1, standalone signing, and an example app.

On 17 October that package is already at 3.1.0 on npm. The latest tag of @solana/web3.js is separate from it.

Changes from version 1.x

The release notes describe the TypeScript work in four places. Numbers often become bigint. Account data arrives as Uint8Array. Key and serialization helpers are async. Many RPC results are readonly.

Keypair.generate(), Keypair.fromSecretKey(), and Keypair.fromSeed() return a promise. So do Transaction.serialize() and Transaction.verifySignatures().

Many Connection methods return bigint instead of number. With no commitment set, the default is confirmed. On version 1.x it was finalized.

getMinimumBalanceForRentExemption now throws when the call fails. It used to log a warning and resolve 0n. The decoders decodeSplit and decodeWithdraw return lamports as bigint.

Removed surfaces include PublicKey.unique(), the Account class, and the FeeCalculator methods, among them getRecentBlockhash.

The docs set the floor at Node.js 20.18.0.

Projects that stay on 1.x have to pin the version, for example @solana/web3.js@1. An install that leaves the version open gets v3 from 19 October.

What to watch

  • What time of day the latest tag moves on 19 October
  • Whether the 1.x line still receives a critical fix after the move
  • What the 20 October livestream adds beyond the notes

Sources

#web3js #npm #javascript #solana-kit

Related Articles