# Spring Boot 2 starter end-of-life

**Status:** Accepted 2026-07-27

## Decision

`com.openai:openai-java-spring-boot-starter` targets Spring Boot 2.7 and is OpenAI EOL effective
2026-07-27. Version 4.45.0 is its final supported, tested, and published OpenAI SDK release. That
release remains downloadable, but no later starter versions will be published and it receives no
fixes, testing, or compatibility support.

Spring ended public OSS support for Boot 2 with
[2.7.18 on 2023-11-23](https://spring.io/blog/2023/11/23/spring-boot-2-7-18-available-now/).
The policy's maximum six-month grace period therefore ended 2024-05-23. Commercial maintenance does
not satisfy the repository's OSS-support admission rule, and the upstream gap is already much
longer than the permitted grace period.

Declaring the unchanged starter EOL is a minor release. Removing the artifact, raising its Java
floor, or changing the same coordinate to a newer Spring generation would require a SemVer major.
A future supported Spring integration must use generation-specific coordinates and independently
pass the policy's 12-month admission gate.

## History and source removal

The starter was introduced in SDK 2.18.0 after
[an external request](https://github.com/openai/openai-java/issues/480) for Spring Boot
`application.properties` and `application.yml` support. It was a customer-facing convenience
artifact, not a test fixture: it bound `openai.*` configuration, created an injectable
`OpenAIClient` bean, and allowed applications to customize the client builder.

The starter's source was removed from the active build after its final release. Keeping that source
on the default branch did not verify 4.45.0: the module depended on the current checkout's
`openai-java` project and therefore compiled and tested an unpublished, changing combination of the
current SDK with Spring Boot 2.7.18. It also kept the EOL Spring dependency graph active for
repository security scanning.

Removing the active source does not withdraw the released artifact. Version 4.45.0 remains on Maven
Central, and its exact implementation and tests remain available in the
[`v4.45.0` source tag](https://github.com/openai/openai-java/tree/v4.45.0/openai-java-spring-boot-starter).
The tagged
[`v4.45.0` README](https://github.com/openai/openai-java/blob/v4.45.0/README.md#spring-boot)
preserves its final installation and configuration instructions.

## Consumer migration

Applications that cannot leave Boot 2 may pin the starter to 4.45.0, but do so without OpenAI or
upstream OSS security support. The preferred path is:

1. Follow Spring's [Boot 3 migration guide](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/wiki/Spring-Boot-3.0-Migration-Guide):
   upgrade to the latest 2.7 release first, move to Java 17 and Spring Framework 6, and migrate
   affected Java EE imports to Jakarta EE.
2. Remove `openai-java-spring-boot-starter`.
3. Depend on `com.openai:openai-java` and provide a normal application-owned `OpenAIClient` bean.

```java
@Bean
OpenAIClient openAIClient() {
    return OpenAIOkHttpClient.fromEnv();
}
```

This keeps Spring's dependency platform authoritative and avoids pretending that a Boot 2
auto-configuration artifact supports Boot 3 or later.