Here’s a summary of key discussions and developments in the Cassandra community for September. It was a busy month, with several new CEPs and notable project updates.
CEP Update 1. CEP-51: Support Include Semantics for cassandra.yaml [Link<https://lists.apache.org/thread/lw5ys4d0o69jxh57g5m2t52h8062wzw3>] This CEP, aimed at improving configuration organization for cassandra.yaml, passed its vote and will now move to implementation. 2. CEP-54: ZSTD with Dictionary SSTable Compression [Link<https://lists.apache.org/thread/ymhlz77my9l0r8rnh8tmzpk61q0fpc20>] This proposal to improve Cassandra’s storage efficiency also passed its vote and is now being implemented. Discussion continues in Slack under #cassandra-zstd-discuss. 3. CEP-32 OpenTelemetry tracing integration [Link<https://lists.apache.org/thread/1qrqdg6xof9onj5mdr1ck40ys5w5qlod>] Introduces OpenTelemetry tracing support to Cassandra. Currently under active discussion. 4. CEP 53: Cassandra Rolling Restarts via Sidecar [Link<https://lists.apache.org/thread/sy6bj6t0jt0f5tcvnbflj6lx56pzyt3h>] Proposes safe rolling restarts through Sidecar. The CEP is currently under vote. 5. CEP-55 - generated role names [Link<https://lists.apache.org/thread/0fw7n519bx59wdrk3dfkdpdbyxnr3fdq>] Suggests automatic generation of role names to simplify user management. Now under vote. 6. CEP-38: CQL Management API [Link<https://lists.apache.org/thread/zmgvo2ty5nqvlz1xccsls2kcrgnbjh5v>] Aims to let operators run nodetool commands through CQL, unifying node probe, nodetool, and the new CQL management API. Currently under vote. Other news 1. New PMC chair [Link<https://lists.apache.org/thread/p1q49hlqhl0kwy1dynytdjhb5ngcd083>] Dinesh Joshi passed the baton to Ekaterina Dimitrova as the new PMC Chair. Huge thanks to Dinesh for his leadership over the past year, and congratulations to Ekaterina for taking on this important role! 2. New Committers Congratulations to Jyothsna and Saranya for becoming Cassandra committers — a well-deserved recognition of their continued contributions. 3. Pulse check: Need Reviewers for tickets [Link<https://lists.apache.org/thread/x8sc6t20f048kdg0g2l9ofhtkbnmjbvn>] There are currently ~80 tickets marked as “patch available” or “needs committer.” If you can help, check out the [Jira filter link<https://issues.apache.org/jira/issues/?filter=12353799>] to pick up reviews. 4. Community Over Code 2025 [Link<https://lists.apache.org/thread/4w9po3pc97fmqpd6hgob60oy96ygpkgb>] The annual ASF event took place in Minneapolis, featuring many great Cassandra talks and community meetups. You can browse recorded sessions here<https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqcm6qE9lgKKvJ456OBZzcvMZ6YFpCyUg>. Dev List Link<https://lists.apache.org/[email protected]:2025-9> Key stats: Found 270 emails by 62 authors, divided into 23 topics. Thanks Himanshu
