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    Migration guides

    Kirby 6 beta.1 is ready for testing. Here's how to try it safely, what your server and browsers need and which guide fits your role.

    This is a beta

    Don't use Kirby 6 beta.1 in production. Make a backup of your site and test the beta on a copy, either locally or on a staging server.

    Kirby 6 is a major release. The beta is meant to give you a head start: try it with your sites and plugins, find out what needs to change and tell us what breaks. Tweaks and even breaking changes can still change between the beta releases and the final release of Kirby 6 to get all ready and in place.

    Two things to keep in mind while testing:

    • Work on a copy of your site, including the content folder. Kirby 6 writes some content slightly differently, e.g. YAML in structure fields, so don't sync content from your test copy back to your live site.
    • Turn on debug mode on your test copy. Kirby 6 is stricter in a few places and the error messages tell you exactly what to fix.

    Which guide is for you?

    For editors →

    For everyone who works in the Panel: what changes in daily use, from the new login screen to passkeys, two-factor authentication and the live preview, plus what to tell your team before the switch.

    For site developers →

    The complete guide for everyone who builds and maintains Kirby sites: requirements, config options, blueprints, templates, content, queries, users and permissions, step by step with before and after code.

    For plugin developers →

    For everyone who maintains a plugin or custom Panel extensions: Vue 3, custom fields as PHP classes, sections, the Panel backend and the new auth extensions.

    Requirements

    PHP

    Kirby 6 requires PHP 8.3, 8.4 or 8.5. Support for PHP 8.2 has been removed.

    You can check your PHP version in the system view of the Panel. If your server runs an older version, switch to a newer one before you update Kirby. Kirby 5 already runs on PHP 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5, so you can change the PHP version first while your site still runs on Kirby 5 and update Kirby afterwards.

    Browsers for the Panel

    The Panel in Kirby 6 needs browsers released from roughly mid-2024 onwards. We follow Baseline "widely available": the Panel relies on web platform features that have been available in all major browsers for at least 2.5 years.

    Desktop Mobile
    • Chrome 124+
    • Edge 124+
    • Firefox 125+
    • Safari 17.5+
    • Opera 110+
    • Safari on iOS 17.5+
    • Chrome for Android 124+
    • Android Browser 124+

    Your website itself is not affected: these requirements only apply to the Panel.

    First test drive

    If you just want a first test drive, we've migrated our two kits for you to play around with:

    Starterkit

    Plainkit

    Install beta.1

    Work on a copy of your site. Then pick the way you usually install Kirby:

    Download the 6.0.0-beta.1 release from GitHub, unpack it and replace your kirby folder with it. Rename the unpacked folder to kirby if needed.

    Require the exact beta version:

    composer require getkirby/cms:6.0.0-beta.1

    Or set the version in your composer.json and run composer update getkirby/cms:

    /composer.json
    {
  "require": {
    "getkirby/cms": "6.0.0-beta.1"
  }
}

    Composer installs a pre-release only if you ask for it explicitly like this. A constraint like ^6.0 won't pick up the beta.

    If Kirby is a Git submodule in your project:

    cd kirby
git fetch --tags
git checkout 6.0.0-beta.1
cd ..
git add kirby
git commit -m "Try Kirby 6.0.0-beta.1"
    kirby upgrade 6.0.0-beta.1

    The CLI asks you to confirm the major version upgrade.

    Licensing

    Kirby 6 is a free upgrade for everyone with a valid Kirby Basic or Enterprise license.

    If you have an older license, e.g. for Kirby 3, you can upgrade it in our license hub.

    You don't need a paid license to try Kirby 6. You can activate your test installation with a free development license in the Panel's system view instead. All details are in our license terms.

    Coming from Kirby 4 or older

    Update one major version at a time. Each step has its own changes and deprecations, and the Kirby 5 guides and changelogs explain what changed in between.

    1. Make a backup of your entire site.
    2. From Kirby 3 or older: follow the guide to update to Kirby 4 and check that everything works.
    3. From Kirby 4: follow the guide to update to Kirby 5 and read the Kirby 5 changelog.
    4. Update to the latest Kirby 5 release. Turn on debug mode and fix all deprecation warnings you see. Code that is deprecated in Kirby 5 is often removed in Kirby 6.
    5. Switch to PHP 8.3 or newer while your site still runs on Kirby 5.
    6. Update to Kirby 6 and follow the guide for site developers.

    Test your site after every step. If something breaks, you know which update caused it.

    Report issues

    Found a bug or something that doesn't work like it did in Kirby 5? Please report it on GitHub: github.com/getkirby/kirby/issues.

    Please mention that you're testing 6.0.0-beta.1 and include:

    • your PHP version and, for Panel issues, your browser and its version
    • the steps to reproduce the problem
    • the full error message, ideally with debug mode turned on
    • the relevant parts of your blueprint, template or config

    Before you report a problem, check the changelog and the migration guides: it might be an intended change. If you're unsure whether something is a bug, report it anyway. That's exactly what the beta is for.