etcd v3.7.0 has been released, introducing the long-awaited RangeStream RPC that streams large result sets in chunks instead of buffering them entirely, reducing latency and memory usage. Key performance improvements include a keys-only range optimization that reads solely from the in-memory index, faster and more reliable lease handling with prioritized LeaseRevoke requests and a new FastLeaseKeepAlive feature, and faster concurrent watch operations. The release completes a major protobuf overhaul replacing deprecated libraries with google.golang.org/protobuf, reducing CPU usage. The server now bootstraps entirely from v3store, eliminating the legacy v2 store dependency after a multi-release effort. Other additions include Unix socket support, JWT authentication token setting directly in clientv3, new watch observability metrics, and etcdutl timeout support. Breaking changes include removal of all --experimental flags (replaced by feature gates), removal of v2 API packages, and multiarch-only container images. Dependencies updated include bbolt v1.5.1 and raft v3.7.0.
