# Protocol Buffers v36.0 — Protocol Buffers v36.0

- Product: Protocol Buffers (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/protobuf)
- Vendor: Google
- Date: 2026-08-20
- Version: v36.0
- Original notes: https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases/tag/v36.0
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/protobuf/releases/v36.0

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

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- **changed** — Make default_symbol_visibility STRICT in edition 2026
- **deprecated** — Add deprecation warnings for (py|cc|java)_generic_service
- **fixed** — Disallow reserving field number INT_MAX
- **added** — Add bazel targets for standalone plugin binaries
- **added** — Add --<lang>_prefix cli option
- **changed** — Enforce proto limits in the descriptor by default for EDITION_2026
- **fixed** — Apply path traversal guard to WriteAllToZip() matching WriteAllToDisk()
- **added** — Add an enforce_proto_limits feature which will be implemented in Edition 2026
- **changed** — Disable option sub-location mapping in open-source builds
- **added** — Add json_options.proto and json_enumvalue_options.proto to release artifacts
- **deprecated** — Add deprecation warning for Reflection::GetEnum() and Reflection::GetRepeatedEnum()
- **fixed** — Validate Duration/Timestamp in TimeUtil::FromString against spec limits
- **changed** — Use the direct map reflection API when converting message to JSON if the repeated field reflection is not valid
- **fixed** — Stop TextFormat iteration if output stream fails
- **added** — Add workaround for attribute handling bug in gcc < 13
- **fixed** — Fix confusing error message for map value type name conflicts
- **changed** — Align C++Proto JSON behavior on the type.proto path with the descriptor.proto path
- **added** — Add json_name enumval support
- **changed** — Make Timestamps.parse() attempt non-lenient parsing first and warning if this fails
- **added** — Add a warning for potential OneofDescriptor collisions prior to Q1 2027 breaking changes

#### Announcements
* [Protobuf News](https://protobuf.dev/news/) may include additional announcements or pre-announcements for upcoming changes.
* [Migration Guide](https://protobuf.dev/support/migration/) may include additional guidance for breaking changes.

#### Bazel
* Add Bazel9 test (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/90ad7e978849e11406eeb47baf228b099c5da9d0)
* Bazel 9 tests for csharp, hpb, objc, php, python, rust and upb (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/f9e028f29fa83d0fcfb01c19ce0a4635e9beff5c)

#### Compiler
* Make default_symbol_visibility STRICT in edition 2026 (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/fcd68c563cf2be486622a118caaf8c5f3858f744)
* Add deprecation warnings for (py|cc|java)_generic_service. (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/517be42cfe43c9e2c69f5ee40e437a9d8cbd3f99)
* Disallow reserving field number INT_MAX. (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/933c522f9e9a09d30f370dc885640af248e52469)
* Add bazel targets for standalone plugin binaries (#23919) (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/81880fad1673797b6326a91582b2bf77069d505d)
* Feat: `--<lang>_prefix` cli option (#24824) (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/92dd27ccf0c5c674b48de48310e0ebf45d0d5b88)
* Enforce proto limits in the descriptor by default for EDITION_2026. (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/d8520d93af2aadf99afcb5e17bfb99c14ad57364)
* Fix: Apply path traversal guard to WriteAllToZip() matching WriteAllToDisk() (#27171) (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/28bef9809e4d1f5f3b6da2a4a26a3bd5b488136b)
* Add an `enforce_proto_limits` feature which will be implemented in Edition 2026. (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/5ddd5244f7a04539e59f97fbc0c0df02334d0b12)

#### C++
* Disable option sub-location mapping in open-source builds. (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/1d8a656f5273a3b41afa609cf0f08b65491dbd48)
* Add  `json_options.proto` and `json_enumvalue_options.proto` and/or gencode derived from them to release artifacts (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/15e93345f8b821ad74334fd503318f8860b774bb)
* Add deprecation warning for `Reflection::GetEnum()` and `Reflection::GetRepeatedEnum()`. (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/0bca2886d724d6782186ae970a0214b6fcc3e4e0)
* Migrate top-level protobuf unittest protos from Edition 2024 to Edition 2026. (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/271ca53b50bebdb4b910563928b1f7f3d5c61990)
* Util: validate Duration/Timestamp in TimeUtil::FromString against spec limits (#27443) (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/e33749537254d42895ef084e482faaba230fddc2)
* Make default_symbol_visibility STRICT in edition 2026 (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/fcd68c563cf2be486622a118caaf8c5f3858f744)
* Use the direct map reflection API when converting message to JSON, if the repeated field reflection is not valid. (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/e75aac33c3615d22d0cba61e8f9d92939a39a73f)
* Add bazel targets for standalone plugin binaries (#23919) (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/81880fad1673797b6326a91582b2bf77069d505d)
* Fix(cpp): stop TextFormat iteration if output stream fails (#26237) (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/2718dd5f3dda891f7e0224e5f50aa946219499ff)
* Enforce proto limits in the descriptor by default for EDITION_2026. (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/d8520d93af2aadf99afcb5e17bfb99c14ad57364)
* Add an `enforce_proto_limits` feature which will be implemented in Edition 2026. (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/5ddd5244f7a04539e59f97fbc0c0df02334d0b12)
* Workaround for attribute handling bug in gcc < 13 (https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/ba10a4e179fa6cd0cbe4597f6fd19c1b3442c5bd)
* Fix confusing error message for map value type name conflicts (http

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