The Apache Grails Framework

Full circle moments hit different. In the 90s, I built my first web projects on The Apache Software Foundation HTTP Server. It was the backbone of the internet, and honestly, it shaped how I think about software. And I have been a Tomcat user for 25 of the 27 years, it has existed. Fast forward to today: I'm officially a member of the Apache Software Foundation. 🚀 The ASF just welcomed 45 new members on March 5, 2026, bringing total membership to 1,188. I'm proud to be among them. For context, ASF membership is similar to being a shareholder in the foundation. You help guide an organization that powers: ↳ Apache HTTP Server ↳ Kafka ↳ Apache Cassandra ↳ Apache Airflow ↳ And hundreds more I've been serving as VP and PMC Chair for The Apache Grails Framework since graduation to a top level project in October, and that work led to this moment. Going from a developer in the 90s who relied on Apache to survive... to now helping steward the foundation that maintains it all. That's the kind of career arc that makes you stop and appreciate the journey. Open source gave me so much over nearly 30 years. This is my chance to give back in a real, meaningful way. If you're building with any Apache project today, know that there's a passionate community of people working hard to keep it thriving. Honored doesn't even begin to cover it.

The Apache Grails community is pleased to announce the release of Apache Grails 7.1.0. Grails is a powerful Groovy-based web application framework for the JVM, built on top of Spring Boot, and supported by a rich ecosystem of plugins that extend its functionality. The release notes are available here: https://lnkd.in/eQAfKqH8 For the complete list of changes: https://lnkd.in/eFPMFHRH Apache Grails website: https://grails.apache.org/ Download Links: https://lnkd.in/ddcjv8Dm Grails Resources: - Grails GitHub repo: https://lnkd.in/dx-3XgKq - Issues: https://lnkd.in/dQf6zJMd - Mailing lists: https://lnkd.in/dBa-NFQz Happy Coding, The Apache Grails Team

Just wrapped my talk at ArcOfAI in Austin yesterday. 75 minutes on AI coding agents for full-stack Java dev in IntelliJ IDEA. Here's what we covered... AI coding agents aren't autocomplete anymore. They write entire features, generate tests, and produce docs. The shift is real and it's fast. We did a live head-to-head: GitHub Copilot vs JetBrains Junie, running Claude, GPT, Gemini, and Grok side-by-side inside IntelliJ IDEA 2026.1. And then topped it off with an OpenCode demo.  The stack I used: Spring Boot + The Apache Grails Framework. Why Grails? Groovy gives you ~30-40% better token efficiency vs pure Java. That matters a lot when you're hitting context limits. We also got real about the pitfalls: ↳ Hallucinations inventing fake methods and plugins ↳ Context loss mid-session on large codebases ↳ Security risks from unreviewed AI commits ↳ Over-reliance leading to hidden tech debt And I showed my GitHub contribution graph: 7,744 contributions in the last year. Agentic engineering acceleration is not theoretical. The audience brought great energy and sharp questions. Austin did not disappoint. 🚀 Slides link in the comments 👇

Grails isn't just surviving; it's evolving. 🛠️ With the backing of the Apache Software Foundation and a renewed focus on community growth, the future looks brighter than it has in years. As James Fredley (PMC Chairman) puts it: 'Grails is NOT an exotic outlier. It's productivity layers on top of Spring Boot.' Catch up on the latest developments at the Schneide Blog: https://lnkd.in/eZkcP-d4

🚀 Grails Migration Win: 6 Months to 9 Days Huge shoutout to Forrest Evans, Product Manager at Rundeck at PagerDuty! He crushed a full Grails 6 to 7 migration in just 9 days. The project was originally scoped for 6 months with big costs! 99.7% test pass rate across 5,100 tests and 44 reusable migration patterns documented. All powered by smart use of AI tools. This is the kind of modernization story we love in the Grails community! 👏 Have you upgraded to Grails 7 yet? Share your experience below 👇 #Grails #Grails7 #Groovy #TechMigration #AIinDev #Rundeck

A great update on Grails 7 and 8 and the move to ASF.

For Community Over Code Glasgow 2026, The Groovy track is seeking talks about Apache Groovy, Apache Grails, Apache Geb, the Spock testing framework, Gradle, and other technologies in the broader Groovy ecosystem. You can submit your talk here: https://lnkd.in/eiUyrS_H

Call for Presentations for Community:  Over Code Glasgow (October 11–14, 2026) is now open!  https://lnkd.in/gpY6fUkN Topics include (but aren’t limited to): • AI Plumbing • Airflow Contributor Days • Cassandra • CloudStack • Community • Data Infrastructure & Engineering • Fintech and Fineract • Governance & Policy • Groovy/Grails • Incubator • Industrial Internet of Things • Infrastructure • NuttX RTOS • Performance, Scalability & Observability • Search • Streaming • Sustainability & Green Software • Tomcat, HTTPD, and other servers  Submission deadline: March 20, 2026 at 23:59 UTC  Community Over Code: https://buff.ly/dZd1L5P

Grails 7.0.8 has been released! Detailed upgrade instructions are available here: https://lnkd.in/eCP7a6Vy The release notes are available here: https://lnkd.in/epFNJf_P

📣 The Call for Papers is now open for Community Over Code 2026. For the first time ever, CoC will feature Lakehouse Day EU 2026 as a co-located event! 🗓 Submit your talks for either event by March 20 More info 👉 https://buff.ly/wmmaGtA #opensource #CommunityOverCode