Native Image Committer and Community Meeting 2026-09-24

[wirthi]

List of all past and upcoming meetings: #3933

GraalVM Community Summit October 21-22, 2026 in Zurich.

The meeting after this one is planned for December 3rd, 2026. The meeting will typically be on the last Thursday of each month. (we will skip the October meeting as there is the Community Meeting in Zurich around that time; moving back the November one by one week to avoid colliding with Thanksgiving).

PRs listed below were merged on GitHub between August 25th, 2026 and September 22nd, 2026.

New and Noteworthy

GraalVM 25.4.4.1.1 has been released.

Native Image Layers and Analysis improvements

Analysis enhancements

• [GR-79008] Improve Native Image type checks with exact-type hints #14479
  (summarized change) Improves Native Image type checks with exact-type hints: lower instanceof checks effectively into a small polymorphic inline cache of likely exact DynamicHub matches before falling back to the generic closed- or open-world type check.
• [GR-79011] [GR-79005] Improve array copy type-flow precision #14388
  (summarized change) Improves array-copy type-flow precision: models CopyOfNode results precisely when the requested array type comes from Object.getClass() or an array class constant..
• [GR-79009] [GR-79411] [GR-76453] Improve inlining-before-analysis heuristics #14433
  (summarized change) Improves inlining-before-analysis heuristics to enable more analysis optimizatoins: always inline Objects.requireNonNull to propagate nullness, always inline Arrays.copyOf to propagate precise array types.

Other analysis fixes

• [GR-79380] Make FieldsOffsetsFeature replacement phase-independent #14400
• [GR-79565] Register Graal field metadata types #14437
  (summarized change) Registers Graal field metadata types for hosted Native Image processing.
• [GR-74294] [GR-79049] Stabilize hosted thread bookkeeping state #14377
  (summarized change) Stabilizes hosted thread bookkeeping together with image-heap field-value handling.

Layered Images

• [GR-79397] Fall back when a lambda has no capture site #14376
  (summarized change) When a lambda has no capture site (e.g., created via LambdaMetafactory) use a stable fallback name to make lambda parsing and cross-layer type reconstruction more robust.
• [GR-79417] Fix ImageSingletons access for application-layer-only singletons in shared layers #14383
  (summarized change) Fixes ImageSingletons access for application-layer-only singletons in shared layers.

Other fixes

• [GR-78922] Pre-assign empty AnnotationData for classes without annotations. #14347
• [GR-78938] Group image heap DynamicHubCompanion, and ClassInitializationInfo and its lock synchronizers. #14332
  (summarized change) Groups DynamicHubCompanion, class-initialization metadata, and associated lock synchronizers in the image heap.
• [GR-62579] Avoid too frequent watchdog reporting that causes bailouts. #14306
• [GR-76159] Skip deleted call tree nodes during force inlining #14402
• [GR-79370] Avoid repeated IPEA materialization traversal #14384

Project Crema

Native Image Support / Java Compatibility

• [GR-79518] [GR-79525] Support Micronaut Maven builds with the Crema libjvm. #14446
  (summarized change) Use the Crema libjvm.so (i.e., the VM implementation behind java command) to drive Maven itself (compile, test, package) and then run the built Micronaut app. Major stress test, Maven does a lot of dynamic class loading.
• [GR-79443] Make javac main JNI-accessible in libjvm. #14410
  (summarized change) Adds reachability metadata to expose com.sun.tools.javac.Main.main(String[]) through JNI in libjvm, allowing native callers to invoke javac.
• [GR-78706] Support JShell with libjvm. #14411
  (summarized change) Supports JShell with the Crema libjvm.
• [GR-68603] Support calling run-time-loaded caller sensitive methods with reflection. #14480
  (summarized change) Supports reflective calls to caller-sensitive methods in runtime-loaded classes.
• [GR-77796] Open runtime bundle access in Crema #14308
• [GR-78762] Support FFM upcalls from runtime-loaded classes #14404
  (summarized change) Adds FFM upcall support from runtime-loaded classes.
• [GR-73485] [GR-76409] Support FFM downcalls from runtime-loaded classes #14294
  (summarized change) Adds FFM downcall support from runtime-loaded classes.
• [GR-79582] MethodHandleNatives.init: use invokespecial for statically bindable methods. #14454
  (summarized change) Uses invokespecial for statically bindable MethodHandleNatives.init calls
• [GR-79528] Ensure CallerSensitive methods are preserved for crema when skipping JNI #14425
• [GR-76600] Hide method handle intrinsics in all java stack walking. #14403
• [GR-74974] Use standard maybeBindCaller in crema mode. #14364

Crema Interpreter / Runtime Class Loading

• [GR-79109] Support AArch64 FFM indirect downcall results in the interpreter #14342
• [GR-78929] [GR-79093] [GR-79474] Don't synchronize during constant pool entry resolution. #14401
• [GR-79656] Retain only required frame-state values in interpreter handler stubs #14478
  (summarized change) Retains the frame-state values needed by interpreter handler stubs.
• [GR-79530] Cache Crema invoke signature data #14431
• [GR-79484] [GR-62530] [GR-79510] Crema: fix various minor issues. #14427
• [GR-79529] Quicken Crema baload and bastore handlers #14426
• [GR-78978] Prepare Crema interpreter changes for TOS implementation #14420
  (summarized change) Refactors Crema interpreter handlers to prepare for caching the top operand-stack values in fast local state.
• [GR-72674] Avoid stack frames for frameless handler stubs #14360
• [GR-79203] Record fast accessor method dependency #14358
• [GR-79057] Fix start misalignment in Crema's field layout strategy. #14354
• [GR-79055] Fix interpreter stub prologue ordering on AMD64. #14325
• [GR-79618] Preserve locals when skipping virtual object metadata #14477

Ristretto / Crema JIT

• [GR-75327] [GR-77165] [GR-75330] Add Ristretto Xcomp. #14457
  (summarized change) Adds HotSpot-compatible compilation modes to Ristretto, including -Xcomp, which compiles eligible runtime-loaded methods before their first invocation.
• [GR-78968] Snapshot the type-profile probability denominator for concurrent reads. #14474
  (summarized change) Makes concurrent type-profile reads consistent.
• [GR-79187] Normalize mixed Ristretto hierarchy query arguments. #14451
  (summarized change) Normalizes hierarchy queries for mixed Ristretto types.
• [GR-78835] Collect bounded Crema PGO profiles for Xint and Ristretto. #14374
  (summarized change) Collects bounded Crema PGO profiles for Xint and Ristretto.

Project Terminus: Towards the "Hello, Espresso World!" #12236

• [GR-72635] [GR-73233] Project Terminus: run user features in the guest context #14397
  (summarized change) Runs user features in the guest context and completes Terminus HelloWorld Feature Milestone 1, with all features passing afterRegistration.
• [GR-79009] [GR-79411] [GR-76453] Improve inlining-before-analysis heuristics #14433
  (summarized change) Moves inlining-before-analysis heuristics into common code and makes policy decisions guest-aware through JVMCI metadata, including method-handle intrinsification.
• [GR-79048] Make immutable object registration constant-native #14399
  (summarized change) Makes Native Image immutable-object registration constant-native, replacing builder objects and host reflection with JVMCI constants and metadata.
• [GR-72473] Migrate object replacement to JVMCI constants #14370
  (summarized change) Migrates Native Image object replacement to JVMCI constants, separating ordinary and terminal replacement while preserving replacement ordering and compatibility behavior.
• [GR-78914] VMAccess.createHostProxy: support explicit host proxy method names #14321
  (summarized change) Adds explicit guest-interface-to-host-method proxy mappings, preserves fallback name matching and cache correctness, and supports the behavior in both host and Espresso VMAccess.
• [GR-79471] Improve guest feature error reporting #14458
  (summarized change) Improves guest-feature error reporting and preserves useful guest stack traces across the guest/host boundary.

Usability and Reachability Metadata

• [GR-72910] Move registerBuildTimeBootstrapIndy/Condy to the public API #14254
  (summarized change) Moves build-time invokedynamic/constantdynamic registration to the public Native Image API.
• [GR-79087] Check warnings count before printing -Werror message and make sure LogUtils class with warnings count is runtime-initialized. #14391
  (summarized change) Improves -Werror diagnostics by checking warning counts and runtime-initializing the reporting support.
• [GR-79614] Create URI-compatible resource URLs. #14461
  (summarized change) Adds URI-compatible URLs for Native Image resource files and resource metadata tests.
• [GR-79039] Restore aggregate resource filesystem lookup. #14327
• [GR-78890] New edits to the example output of build options #14330
• [GR-74135] Improve Java Main Class detection for abstract classes. #14326
  (summarized change) Improves Java main-class detection for abstract classes.
• [GR-76213] Native Image Architecture Documentation #14316
• [GR-78945] Delay finding path resource index until needed. #14315

Monitoring / Tooling / Debugging

• [GR-79515] Respect configured levels in JFR logging helpers. #14442
• [GR-79558] Reset the hosted JFR throttler lock #14438
  (summarized change) Resets the hosted JFR throttler lock without retaining a hosted worker thread in the runtime image.
• [GR-78993] Improve DeadlockWatchdog by using just one boolean thus solving performance problems. #14421
  (summarized change) Reduces DeadlockWatchdog overhead by using one boolean while preserving watchdog diagnostics.
• [GR-79383] Fix a race condition in TestThreadCPULoadEvent. #14380

Garbage Collector / Memory Management

• [GR-79382] [GR-79407] Improve option validation and fix various serial GC issues. #14432
  (summarized change) Improves option validation and fixes several Serial GC issues.
• [GR-79111] Ensure that serial GC collects soft references correctly. #14428
• [GR-79519] Make ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent public. #14422
• [GR-79584] Removes an outdated assertion. #14473
• Generatioanl Shenandoah fix: Skip card mark for off-heap stores #14239 (JIT)
  (external contribution) Thank you to JohnTortugo for the Generational Shenandoah off-heap card-mark fix.

Other & fixes

• [GR-79193] Support initialization memory effects in enterprise arraycopy. #14450
• [GR-79006] Optimize stack-overflow and safepoint checks using tail calls. #14362

Questions?

GraalVM Deep Dives

• No deep dive from the GraalVM team this time. We are saving our content for the Meetup in Zurich.
• If there are interesting topics from your side to present, we are happy to reserve a slot for you! Typically ~20 min presentation on and GraalVM Native Image related topic.