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Paper 6.0.0: merge order, ground rules and decisions #5150

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Paper 6.0.0: merge order, ground rules and decisions#5150
Milestone
6.0.0

Description

@Doberjohn
Doberjohn
opened on Oct 30, 2026

This issue is the map to react-native-paper 6.0.0: the order PRs merge in, the rules every PR follows, and the decisions that shape the release. The roadmap conversation stays in #4949. This issue is updated at each phase change; each PR's own state lives on the PR.

Where we are

  • 6.0.0-alpha.1 is on npm under alpha: npm install react-native-paper@alpha. It is the first prerelease since 6.0.0-alpha.0 in June, with 41 commits, 11 of them breaking. Release notes.
  • We are in Phase 1, Foundations.
  • There is no target date. Each phase ends when its gate passes. Review and merge throughput, not the code, sets the pace, so the plan is built on order and gates.

Phases and gates

Phase What lands Gate
0. Unblock ✅ The release pipeline fix (#5149), 6.0.0-alpha.1, quick wins, overdue PRs closed Met on 2026-10-29: alpha.1 on npm under alpha, and the example app's store pipeline green
1. Foundations (now) The five lanes below Every lane merged
2. Breaking changes The component rewrites below Every PR merged or deferred to 7.0, the supported versions declared, known bugs re-tested on main, an Expo smoke test on the latest SDK. Then 6.0.0-beta.0 and the breaking-change freeze
3. Release readiness Docs, the example app, the migration guide, release notes The go/no-go list passes. Then 6.0.0 on latest
After 6.0 New components and other additions, on the 6.1.0 milestone

Merge order

PRs merge lane by lane, top to bottom, and lanes run side by side. If your PR is in a lane, rebase only when it is next. We will ping you, so nobody rebases twice.

Phase 1: Foundations

Checkbox follow-up

Button and styles

The Button API that Card, Dialog and later components build on.

Touch targets and focus

All of these touch TouchableRipple.

Overlays

Theme merge

Phase 2: Breaking changes

Small rewrites, smallest first

Avatar, Banner and DataTable

Button consumers

These build on #5097.

Decide first, then merge

Each follows a decision below.

Phase 3: Release readiness

After 6.0

New components and other additions wait on the 6.1.0 milestone. They stay open there rather than being closed (D8).

Ground rules

  1. Breaking changes land before 6.0.0 or wait for 7.0. The breaking-change freeze starts at 6.0.0-beta.0.
  2. New components ship in 6.1 or later, with no exceptions in 6.0. Deprecations can land in a minor release.
  3. PRs merge in the lane order above, and an author rebases only when their PR is next.
  4. A PR branched from a main older than 2026-09-02 gets a rebase and a fresh CI run before it merges, even if its checks are green.
  5. A breaking PR carries ! in its title, a BREAKING CHANGE: footer in the squash message, and its own section in the migration guide (docs/6.x/docs/guides/migration.md).
  6. A prerelease goes out each time a lane of breaking changes lands, so you can follow along.
  7. 5.x, on the 5.0 branch, keeps getting crash and critical fixes, and every 5.x fix gets checked against main.

Reviews, waiting PRs and closing

  • Reviews. Every PR gets two reviews: a first pass that lists only what blocks it, in one comment, and then a maintainer's line-by-line pass after the rebase.
  • Waiting PRs. After 14 days without an author response to a review, we ping once and name the blocker. After 21 days, a maintainer or another contributor may take the PR over, keeping the original commits and crediting the author, with both PRs linked.
  • Closing. Duplicates, superseded and empty PRs, and PRs stale 30 days after a review. Each close says why and where the work continues, and the door stays open.
  • CI. Runs from forks wait for a maintainer to approve them. We approve them at the weekly triage, on Mondays.

Decisions

Decision Status
D1 Supported versions: peerDependencies stay at *, so release candidates and forks install. Before beta, the getting-started guide names the minimum React, React Native and Expo versions, with a smoke test on the matching Expo SDK (#4996) Decided
D2 Bottom navigation: #5006 (NavigationBar, which replaces BottomNavigation) for 6.0; #5120 closed Decided
D3 Progress indicators: ProgressBar and ActivityIndicator stay in 6.0 with no react-native-svg dependency, which can regress performance. #4995 closed; new indicators come later, and only without react-native-svg Decided
D4 The stateLayerPressed token is removed before 6.0.0, keeping today's default look (#4997, which needs a new owner) Decided
D5 No per-component rippleColor: Material 3 has no theme-level state layer color. #5097 drops the one it re-adds; a prop can come back in 6.x if needed Decided
D6 Menu: #5073 uses the Material 3 Expressive container role (surfaceContainerLow); #5121 keeps only its dynamic-theme fix; #5122 and #5051 land before #5073; a container prop waits for 6.1 Decided
D7 Appbar keeps its compound API in 6.0, built on context, with the Expressive variants as props. The bottom app bar stays, deprecated, until Toolbar lands in 6.1 (#5075) Decided
D8 New components ship in 6.1 or later, Toolbar (#5043) and ConnectedButtonGroup (#5074) included. SegmentedButtons is deprecated in 6.1 and removed in 7.0 Decided
D9 Theme merge: PaperProvider keeps its shallow merge (only colors merge over the defaults), and the theming guide says a key such as fonts must be complete. #5047 closed; #5136, then #5027 Decided
D10 Who merges: one merger for now, after the final pass; more reviewers and mergers will follow Decided
D11 The FAB variant rename lands in 6.0, without the branded variant (#5110) Decided
D12 PaperProvider stays required in 6.0, as the docs have always said Decided
D13 Before the freeze: RadioButtonAndroidProps and RadioButtonIOSProps go (with #5007), and so does the unused theme.elevation key. useReduceMotion and ThemeProp stay unexported for now Decided
D14 The release notes preset switches from angular to conventionalcommits, which reads the ! in breaking PR titles Decided
D15 Sliders: 6.1, with one owner (#5000, #5132); #5033 closed Decided
D16 Policies: takeovers and closing as in the ground rules above; the 5.x support window is set after 6.0; a rule for showcase entries is still to come (#5137, #5025) Open: showcase entries
D17 The docs landing page (#5138): after 6.0 Decided

A decision is posted on each PR it changes. To weigh in on one, comment on that PR or in #4949.

How to help

  • Test 6.0.0-alpha.1 in a real app. Set up from the 6.x getting-started guide. 6.x needs React 19 and the New Architecture. Open an issue with 6.0.0-alpha.1 in the title, your platform and your React Native and Expo versions. Missing migration notes count too.
  • Review. Take the next PR in a lane and do a first pass: does the scope match the title, did CI run on the latest commit, does it overlap with another open PR, and how does it behave on a device?
  • Keep your PR ready for its turn. Check the lane it is in, and rebase when it is next.
  • Milestones: 6.0.0 · 6.1.0

Activity

  1. Doberjohn
    added this to the 6.0.0 milestone on Oct 30, 2026
  2. Doberjohn
    pinned this issue on Oct 30, 2026
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