1.56.0 - SidecarContainers in Beta, Hugo Upgrade & Site Dark Mode Enabled and More!

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

This is the 1.56.0 release of Agones

This release improves stability and usability with several key updates. The SidecarContainers feature is now in Beta. We have upgraded Hugo and Docsy, and dark mode has been enabled on the site. Node SDK linting has been migrated from ESLint to Biome. A Google Doodle containerized games case study has been added to third-party content. Additionally, an optional agones.metrics.serviceMonitor.additionalLabels map has been added to the Helm chart.

Promote SideCarContainers to Beta: The SideCarContainers has been promoted to Beta and is enabled by default. This feature decouples the SDK lifecycle from the GameServer container lifecycle.
Upgrade Hugo and Docsy Updates: This release includes an upgrade to Hugo 0.152.2 and Docsy 0.13.0, along with updates to related dependencies, ensuring compatibility and improved performance across the website, including shortcodes, menus, the navbar, and other components.
Dark Mode Enabled in Website: Implement dark mode support on the Agones website using a theme toggle with CSS variables. Enable automatic theme detection based on the user’s system preferences (prefers-color-scheme). Ensure consistent styling across all pages to enhance accessibility and reduce eye strain.
Configurable Release Label for ServiceMonitor in Helm Chart: Add support for configuring additional labels on ServiceMonitor resources via the Helm chart values. This enables users to align ServiceMonitor labels with Prometheus or Alloy selector requirements. Ensures compatibility in environments where scraping is restricted to ServiceMonitors matching specific labels.
Migrate Node SDK Linting from ESLint to Biome: Replace ESLint configuration with Biome for the Node SDK linting setup. Update project dependencies and scripts to use Biome for linting and formatting tasks. Ensure rule parity and validate code quality checks through CI integration.

Check the README for details on features, installation and usage.

Breaking changes

Feat: Move SidecarContainers feature gate to Beta by @AryanBagade in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4364
Fix Prometheus installation with helm chart v28.9.0. by @markmandel in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4448

Implemented enhancements

Build simple-game-server in CI for e2e tests by @IrvingMg in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4401
Upgrade Hugo and Docsy by @Sivasankaran25 in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4404
add optional agones.metrics.serviceMonitor.additonalLabels map to values.yaml in helm chart by @jessebot in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4424
Added dark mode to the website by @thegalacticlor in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4439
site: update homepage showcase and navbar styling by @markmandel in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4438

Fixed bugs

fix(sdk): add validation to SetAnnotation to prevent infinite retry loop by @indurireddy-TF in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4417
Fixes post_cloudbuild release by explicitly passing variables as Makefile arguments by @igooch in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4423
fix: Ensure the processclient have a correct timeout / fix flacky test by @lacroixthomas in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4402
docs: fix alert shortcode syntax to process Markdown content by @markmandel in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4437

Other

Preparation for Release v1.56.0 by @Sivasankaran25 in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4422
chore(sdk/nodejs): update dependencies and migrate to ESLint 9 config by @markmandel in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4412
chore(sdk/nodejs): migrate linting from ESLint to Biome by @smazmi in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4426
fix(docs): update external links in out-of-cluster dev server guide by @markmandel in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4427
test: standardize runtime.ParseFeatures error handling and mutex usage by @markmandel in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4416
Add Singularity 6 Palia architecture article to third party content by @markmandel in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4430
Add CEDIL slides link for Sega Sonic Rumble CEDEC talk by @markmandel in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4432
Add Google Doodle containerized games case study to third party content by @markmandel in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4433
docs: add blog entry for “Making and Scaling a Game Server in Kubernetes using Agones” by @noetarbouriech in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4428
Document Allocation batching by @markmandel in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4440
build(deps): bump github.com/go-git/go-git/v5 from 5.16.4 to 5.16.5 in /build/scripts/example-version-checker by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4442
test: fix flaky allocation metrics test server startup by @srpvpn in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4445
docs: convert alert shortcodes to format for markdown rendering by @markmandel in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4446
build: improve test-gen-api-docs failure message by @markmandel in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4453

New Contributors

@smazmi made their first contribution in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4426
@IrvingMg made their first contribution in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4401
@noetarbouriech made their first contribution in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4428
@jessebot made their first contribution in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4424
@AryanBagade made their first contribution in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4364
@thegalacticlor made their first contribution in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4439
@srpvpn made their first contribution in https://github.com/agones-dev/agones/pull/4445

See CHANGELOG for more details on changes.

Images available with this release:

Helm chart available with this release:

helm install agones agones/agones --version 1.56.0

Make sure to add our stable helm repository using helm repo add agones https://agones.dev/chart/stable

Last modified April 12, 2026: docs: add allocator and ping HA details (#4509) (03e321c)