Breaking: Valkey-Swift 1.0 Released
The Swift on server ecosystem celebrates a major milestone with the official 1.0 release of valkey-swift, a production-grade Swift client for both Valkey and Redis data stores. Built from the ground up for Swift 6, the client ensures type safety and data-race freedom through structured concurrency.
“Every Valkey command returns typed responses checked at compile time, and strict concurrency checking is enabled throughout so that data races are caught by the compiler, not in production,” says Adam Fowler, the open-source developer behind the library. “Connections and subscriptions are all scoped through structured concurrency, so resources clean up automatically.”
The client covers all standard Valkey commands, auto-generated from Valkey’s own command specifications to stay in sync as the server evolves. This makes it equally capable of working with Valkey or Redis.
Background
Until now, RediStack was the de facto Swift client for Redis, but it was built on pre-concurrency concepts. Retrofitting structured concurrency would have been awkward, and some new features for valkey-swift would have been infeasible.
Around the same time, Redis changed its licensing structure, leading to the open-source fork Valkey. “So it felt like a good time to make a clean break and build a new library,” Fowler explains. Valkey-swift fills that gap with a modern, Swift-native approach.
What This Means
For server-side Swift developers, this release means a safer, faster way to integrate high-performance key-value stores. Developers using RediStack can migrate using an official guide, while new projects can add valkey-swift via Swift Package Manager.
“If you’re building server-side Swift and need a fast key-value store, add valkey-swift via Swift Package Manager, and you’re ready to go,” Fowler adds. Complete documentation is available, and contributions are welcome on GitHub.
Embedded Swift Takes Center Stage at try! Swift Tokyo 2026
The try! Swift Tokyo 2026 conference featured two talks on Embedded Swift. “Getting started with Embedded Swift” is a short introductory talk covering embedded simulators and code examples for devices like the Game Boy Advance.
“Learn by Building: Bare-Metal Programming with Embedded Swift” dives deeper, with five bare-metal Raspberry Pi Pico examples for hands-on learning.
Swift Concurrency Q&A and Optional Tips
A live online Q&A with Swift concurrency engineers offers insights directly from the design team. Meanwhile, Nil Coalescing published a new video, “Advanced Techniques for Working with Optionals in Swift,” covering lesser-known optional handling options.
New Package Releases
Alongside valkey-swift, the broader Swift community continues to release new packages, though details were not disclosed in this update. Developers are encouraged to monitor the Swift Package Index for the latest additions.