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January 21, 2026

Agenda​

  • wash rc.6 and update on next items

Meeting Notes​

wash rc.6 release​

  • rc.6 represents one of the largest release candidates to date, with significant changes in both behavior and API
  • Changes focused primarily on wash dev rather than wash host
  • Team completed extensive code cleanup including linting and removal of expect/unwraps to prevent panics in critical paths
  • Release includes changes to configuration, build environment expectations, and wash dev behavior
  • New features include:
    • Persistent Storage: Blobstore and key-value plugins now backed by filesystem instead of memory
    • Data persists across wash dev restarts
    • Users can configure which directory backs blobstore and key-value
    • Virtual TCP/IP Loopback: Components can now connect to services over localhost (127.0.0.1)
    • Long-running components can open TCP ports only accessible to other components in the same workload
    • Multiple workloads can open the same port (e.g., port 80) due to interface virtualization
    • Service/Component Communication: Improvements in correctness and Wasm context handling

New QR code generator example​

  • New example added to demonstrate WebAssembly component development
  • Located in wash repository under examples/qrcode
  • Demonstrates HTTP request processing, including POST requests
  • Generates PNG images server-side (not SVG rendered in browser)
  • Showcases components, HTTP handling, static HTML serving, and error handling in just 71 lines of code
  • Used as a test case for wash dev development cycle

Next steps to wasmCloud 2.0 release​

Team identified three critical items needed before final release:

1. Internal Kubernetes identifier PR

  • Needs revision and discussion to finalize
  • Requires changes in multiple places
  • Ensures workloads are never sent to the wrong host

2. NATS authentication support

  • Currently neither runtime operator nor wash host support NATS authentication
  • Team needs to investigate whether to support additional authentication methods (tokens, credentials files, etc.)
  • Changes must be reflected in Helm chart with security concerns in mind

3. Outbound transport system for gRPC

  • Makes HTTP calls gRPC-aware
  • Host will automatically detect gRPC environment by checking HTTP headers
  • Will make gRPC on top of components essentially transparent
  • Currently causes issues with trading headers when using gRPC clients

Additional validation items

  • Several open items need verification rather than new code
  • Focus on confirming expected behavior is correct after recent changes

Repository structure changes

  • Team plans to move wash repository into main wasmCloud repository
  • Current wash repo will become wasmcloud-v1
  • Main wasmcloud repo will become the primary repository
  • Artifacts will be released from the main wasmcloud repository

Weekly highlights​

Issue of the Week​

Documentation of the Week​

  • rc6 updates

  • Documentation for rc.6 being updated

  • Eric completed first pass already in PR

  • Updates expected to land tomorrow

  • Includes important config changes, particularly version identifier (which is optional)

  • Link will be posted in wasmCloud Slack once documentation lands

Recording​