Java Annotated Monthly

IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA – the Leading IDE for Professional Development in Java and Kotlin
Java Annotated Monthly – September 2026
This month’s Java Annotated Monthly brings you the latest Java news, a generous dose of AI-focused articles, Kotlin updates, and highlights from a variety of technologies and frameworks, plus plenty more worth adding to your reading list.
Our featured writer, Aicha Laafia, takes a closer look at upcoming JEPs and shares her key findings on what may be next for Java. Let’s dive in!
Featured Content
September is here, and so is JDK 27. Nine JEPs if you count the previews, and nothing to rewrite unless you are using preview features. Honestly? That’s my favorite kind of release. You upgrade the version, and your app gets faster.
The features that change your numbers
Compact object headers are on by default (JEP 534). Headers shrink from 96 bits to 64, cutting heap usage by 10% – 20% and pushing throughput up by 5% – 10%. G1 also becomes the default garbage collector everywhere (JEP 523), even on the small machines that used to get Serial GC instead, so check your smallest containers before you upgrade. For the full tour, Sven Woltmann wrote a solid Java 27 breakdown, and if video is more your thing, Catherine Edelveis covers the whole release here.
Two security wins that protect you by default
JFR recordings collect environment variables and system properties, which is exactly where your tokens and passwords live, so Java 27 hides them for you (JEP 536). And TLS 1.3 now gets post-quantum key exchange (JEP 527), because attackers already save encrypted traffic, waiting for quantum computers to break it later. Java 27 makes sure they can’t!
Still on Java 8 or 11?
Don’t jump, hop. Start now, LTS by LTS, and read my article Jurassic JDK: Migrate or Extinct first. I covered everything I wish someone had told me before my first migration.
Enjoy this month’s Java Annotated Monthly!
Java News
See what’s new, changing, and coming next in the world of Java:
- Java News Roundup 1, 2, 3, 4
- Project Valhalla’s First Preview: JEP 401 Redefines == for Java Objects
- JEP 540 Proposed to Target JDK 28 with a Simple JSON API
- JSON API, Valhalla Progress, LTS ❤️ PQC – Inside Java Newscast #114
- Inside Java Episode 67 “Keeping Up With the Java Release Train” [I/O]
- JDK 27 and JDK 28: What We Know So Far
- Announcing Oracle Jipher 10.37: FIPS 140-3 Cryptography for Java
- Evolving a Java MCP Server During MCP Specification Upgrades
Java Tutorials and Tips
Sharpen your Java skills with practical tutorials, clever techniques, and tips worth trying:
- Persistence Workflows with IntelliJ IDEA – Andrey Belyaev | IntelliJ IDEA Tech Talks
- Resilient Sync: Your IDE Keeps Helping even when your Build is Broken
- Inside Java Episode 65 “Embracing Virtual Threads with Helidon” [I/O]
- Introduction to Retrieval-Augmented Generation with Java and MongoDB
- The Power of JDK Flight Recorder: Efficient Profiling and Troubleshooting for Java Applications
- Security Baked Into the JVM: sixteen Subjects on the wire
- Value Classes Still Need Compiler Sympathy
- Inside Java Episode 68 “Operator Overloading with Type Classes” [AtA]
- Why is Arrays.fill 265 times slower on G1GC?
- Beyond Virtual Threads: Structured Concurrency – Balkrishna Rawool | IntelliJ IDEA Tech Talks
Kotlin Corner
Step into Kotlin Corner for fresh updates:
- When Escape Routes Become Toll Roads: Mapping How Developers Move Between Programming Languages
- KotlinLLM is Going Open Source
- Introducing the Kotlin Benchmark for AI Coding Agents
AI
Catch up on the AI ideas, tools, and experiments shaping how developers build software:
- IntelliJ IDEA Goes LSP: Java and Kotlin Intelligence Comes to VS Code, Cursor, and Agentic Flows
- JetBrains Details its First Steps to Bring Rapidly Growing AI Spend under Control
- Jakarta Agentic AI Hits Its First Milestone
- MCP Goes Stateless, and Developers Ask Whether That Just Makes it an API Again
- Top 5 AI Features in IntelliJ IDEA
- Agent Skills in IntelliJ IDEA
- Lessons Learned from Fixing Flaky Tests with Claude
- The reality of AI in the enterprise
- How to Use AI Agents in IntelliJ IDEA With ACP
- Java Enterprise Is Already Ready for the AI Era
- Spring Office Hours Podcast: S5E20 – The Developer’s Guide to AI with Danny Thompson
- How to accelerate agentic adoption
Languages, Frameworks, Libraries, and Technologies
Explore what’s moving and shaking across languages, frameworks, libraries, and the wider tech landscape:
- This Week in Spring 1, 2, 3, 4
- Pods as Workers, Not Agents: Rethinking the Deployment Unit for AI Agents on Kubernetes
- Gradle Is Going Agentic
- When @Immutable Made All the Difference: A 3.2x Speedup with Hibernate Second-Level Cache
- Vibe Coding, Maven, and the Dependencies You Didn’t Choose
Conferences and Events
Mark your calendar with the conferences, meetups, and events worth showing up for:
- Kansas City Developer Conference – Kansas City, USA, September 9–12
- JCConfTaiwan – Taipei, Taiwan, September 11
- Java Forum Nord – Hannover, Germany, September 22
- JUG Saxony Day – Radebeul, Germany, September 25
- Confitura – Warsaw, Poland, September 25–26
- GOTO Copenhagen – Copenhagen, Denmark, September 28 – October 2
Culture and Community
Check out these stories about what makes the developer community tick.
- The Five Stages of AI Maturity in Engineering Organizations – Where and Why Teams Get Stuck
- From Projects to Products: Turning Platforms into Products People Use
- When Escape Routes Become Toll Roads: Mapping How Developers Move Between Programming Languages
- Culture & Methods Trends 2026: The Human Side of AI Engineering
- More Incidents Don’t Necessarily Mean Less Reliability
- What Is Reasoning
- How Code in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Becomes Write-Only and Disposable
- The Human Edge: Why Brownfield Codebases Need Mob Programming, Not Just AI Vibes
- Fast and Hard Code
And Finally…
Check out the latest articles by the IntelliJ IDEA team:
- The Grails Plugin Has a New Home: Apache Grails
- Println Debugging Done Right
- Spring Boot Configuration Management Best Practices
- Project Loom in IntelliJ IDEA: Virtual Threads, Scoped Values, and Structured Concurrency
That’s it for today! We’re always collecting ideas for the next Java Annotated Monthly – send us your suggestions via email or X by September 20. Remember to check out our archive of past JAM issues for any articles you might have missed!

* JDK 27 includes compact object headers by default (JEP 534).
* Compact object headers reduce heap usage by 10%–20% and increase throughput by 5%–10%.
* G1 becomes the default garbage collector everywhere (JEP 523).
* JFR recordings hide environment variables and system properties in Java 27 (JEP 536).
* TLS 1.3 now supports post-quantum key exchange (JEP 527).
* The article mentions updates and previews for JEPs, including JEP 401 regarding `==` for Java Objects.
* An announcement was made regarding Oracle Jipher 10.37: FIPS 140-3 Cryptography for Java.
* Related content covers topics such as Persistence Workflows in IntelliJ IDEA and Structured Concurrency with Virtual Threads.

JDK 27 introduces several features, including compact object headers (JEP 534) that reduce heap usage by 10-20% and increase throughput by 5-10%, and the default adoption of G1 garbage collector across systems (JEP 523). Security improvements include JFR recordings hiding environment variables and system properties (JEP 536), and post-quantum key exchange for TLS 1.3 (JEP 527). The release encourages migration to newer JDK versions, with a recommendation to move from older Long-Term Support (LTS) versions if possible. Further educational resources cover topics like Virtual Threads with Helidon, Retrieval-Augmented Generation with Java/MongoDB, and profiling techniques using the JDK Flight Recorder.

The narrative surrounding JDK updates frames version upgrades not as necessary overhauls, but as efficiency gains driven by default, low-friction changes. The shift towards automatic memory management via G1 and reduced header size positions technical improvements as inherent benefits rather than required migrations, which creates a potential resistance point for organizations accustomed to explicit control. The emphasis on security baked in—hiding sensitive data from standard recordings and implementing post-quantum cryptography—suggests a paradigm where default configurations inherently mitigate risk, pushing the operational burden onto the base level. This suggests an ongoing tension between the developer's desire for granular control over performance tuning and the system's drive toward safer, more efficient defaults. The repeated call to "Start now, LTS by LTS" acts as a narrative push, framing inaction as stagnation rather than a calculated risk management strategy, which can pressure decision-making based on perceived velocity over due diligence regarding migration costs and contextual needs across various environments. What contexts—such as deployment size or security posture—are implicitly prioritized when these default settings are pushed into the forefront? What is the long-term cost of relying on inherent defaults versus explicit, customized configurations?

Java Annotated Monthly

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Java Annotated Monthly

Facts Only

Executive Summary

Full Take

Sentinel — Human