[VOTE] Release Candidate v8.0.0-rc.2

[lance-community]

Release Candidate: v8.0.0-rc.2

This is a release candidate for version 8.0.0-rc.2.

Release Information

• RC Tag: v8.0.0-rc.2
• Release Branch: release/v8.0
• Release Notes: https://github.com/lance-format/lance/releases/tag/v8.0.0-rc.2

Testing Instructions

Python

pip install --pre --extra-index-url https://pypi.fury.io/lance-format/pylance==8.0.0-rc.2

Java (Maven)

Add to your pom.xml:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.lance</groupId>
  <artifactId>lance-core</artifactId>
  <version>8.0.0-rc.2</version>
</dependency>

Rust (Cargo)

Add to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
lance = { version = "=8.0.0-rc.2", git = "https://github.com/lance-format/lance", tag = "v8.0.0-rc.2" }

Voting Instructions

Please test the RC artifacts and vote by commenting:

• +1 to approve
• 0 to abstain or neutral
• -1 if issues found (please include details)

Vote Duration: If there are enough binding votes and no vetoes, the vote will end at 2026-06-27 17:48:26 UTC (Pacific time: 2026-06-27 10:48:26 PDT).

Next Steps

• If approved: Approve RC using approve-rc workflow
• If issues found: Fix on release branch and create new RC using create-rc workflow

[hamersaw]

+1 (non-binding)

[Xuanwo]

+1 binding, thank you for working on releases!

[BubbleCal]

+1

[wjones127]

+1

[BubbleCal]

-1
found some issues of WAL in the current RC, need to backport the related commits, will file a new RC
after discussion we think RC2 is good to go

[BubbleCal]

passed in lancedb: lancedb/lancedb#3592
will cut stable release from this

[westonpace]

+1 from looking at regression report. No performance regressions that I can see. Nice performance boosts in FTS index training, btree search, bitmap search, and f32 L2 distance, and cosine distance on both f32 and f64.