Stellar has released Protocol 25 (X-Ray) with a comprehensive upgrade guide for developers and infrastructure operators. The guide covers key dates, preparation steps, SDK updates, and breaking changes, with the mainnet upgrade scheduled for January 22, 2026.
This guide prepares the Stellar ecosystem for Protocol 25 (X-Ray), which introduces new host functions for BN254 and Poseidon cryptographic primitives. Key milestones include stable releases (December 15, 2025), testnet upgrade (January 7, 2026), and mainnet upgrade vote (January 22, 2026). Developers using Stellar SDKs must upgrade before the respective upgrade dates, while infrastructure operators running Stellar Core, Horizon, RPC, or Galexie need to install Protocol 25 releases and update binaries. The guide provides specific instructions for Ubuntu package installation, Docker deployment, and validator configuration. A notable breaking change affects Go SDKs, which have been consolidated into a new centralized repository requiring import statement updates.
