v2026.04.0

This release bumps the minimum supported zarr version to 3.0, finalizes the
deprecation of timedelta decoding via units, adds col_wrap='auto' for plots,
a new inherit='all_coords' option for :py:meth:DataTree.to_dataset, and a
facetgrid_figsize option for :py:func:~xarray.set_options.

Thanks to the 22 contributors to this release:
Adam Newgas, Alfonso Ladino, Copilot, Deepak Cherian, Emmanuel Ferdman, Ian Hunt-Isaak,
Ilan Gold, Illviljan, Jakob Harteg, Joe Hamman, Julia Signell, Justus Magin,
Kai Mühlbauer, Max Jones, Michael Niklas, Nick Hodgskin, Pieter Eendebak,
Spencer Clark, frostByte, kkollsga, rsignell and yaochengchen

What's Changed

• Add empty whats-new section for v2026.03.0 by @ianhi in #11170
• MAINT: Reduce Pixi RAM usage in RTD by @VeckoTheGecko in #11177
• Fix encoding of masked dask arrays by @jsignell in #11157
• Finalize change in behavior of decode_timedelta=None by @spencerkclark in #11173
• documentation cleanup by @keewis in #11179
• allow triggering the upstream-dev CI if the check is skipped by @keewis in #11184
• Add stubtest to CI for type annotation validation by @kkollsga in #11124
• Fix a typo in dataarray.py by @yaochengchen in #11185
• Fix a typo in api.py by @yaochengchen in #11180
• Fix a typo in doc/user-guide/reshaping.rst by @yaochengchen in #11186
• Fix a typo in variable.py by @yaochengchen in #11182
• MAINT: Set requires-pixi in pixi.toml by @VeckoTheGecko in #11154
• Fix source linking for tagged docs by @ianhi in #11187
• MAINT: Bump version to pixi-lock caching action by @VeckoTheGecko in #11201
• Revert "Add osx-64 to the pixi config." by @VeckoTheGecko in #11203
• Test dependency fixes by @BorisTheBrave in #11172
• Fix a typo in dataset.py by @yaochengchen in #11181
• Fix nightly test failures by @jsignell in #11204
• Add TOAD to xarray ecosystem page by @Harteg in #11219
• Switch to using blockcache with size 4MB by default for h5netcdf by @jsignell in #11216
• Fix failing CI on main by @jsignell in #11237
• Fix code-block in contributing docs by @jsignell in #11228
• fix: support datetime variables in Dataset.interp by @emmanuel-ferdman in #11081
• Allow writing StringDType variables to netCDF by @kkollsga in #11218
• maint: bump minimum dependency versions according to policy by @jhamman in #11231
• fix: handle PandasIndex promotion of dtypes by @ilan-gold in #11244
• DOC: Add Zulip announcement banner and mention in docs by @VeckoTheGecko in #11246
• DOC: Update docstring for Index.from_variables() by @VeckoTheGecko in #11256
• DOC: convert how-to-create-custom-index.rst code blocks by @VeckoTheGecko in #11255
• MAINT: Fix Variable.to_dict type hint by @VeckoTheGecko in #11258
• Add inherit='all_coords' option to DataTree.to_dataset() by @aladinor in #11230
• MAINT: Remove setup.py by @VeckoTheGecko in #11261
• Add overloads for DataArray.argmin and DataArray.argmax on dim parameter by @SurfyPenguin in #11233
• Scipy stubs by @headtr1ck in #11225
• Add a bump-min-versions Claude skill by @dcherian in #11249
• Use cumsum from flox by @Illviljan in #10987
• MAINT: Add script for numpydoc linting of Public API by @VeckoTheGecko in #11121
• DOC: Update communication channels by @VeckoTheGecko in #11254
• Bump pixi-lock action version by @VeckoTheGecko in #11278
• Add AI policy by @VeckoTheGecko in #11257
• Fix generator exhaustion in combine_by_coords by @SurfyPenguin in #11265
• Improve performance of dataset indexing by @eendebakpt in #11276
• use zizmor to lint github action workflows by @keewis in #11269
• Adapt to deprecation of generic np.timedelta64 dtype by @spencerkclark in #11281
• broken nightly wheels ci and permissions for the nightly tests by @keewis in #11282
• Fix h5netcdf backend module detection and ros3 tests by @kmuehlbauer in #11274
• Update pre commit by @jsignell in #11287
• Raise TypeError when Dataset passed as data_vars to Dataset constructor by @kkollsga in #11139
• Add complex dtype support to FillValueCoder for Zarr backend by @maxrjones in #11151
• fix copy-paste error in the release workflow by @keewis in #11289
• MAINT: Add Zizmor to CI and set hook to "offline" mode by @VeckoTheGecko in #11294
• Address additional upstream deprecation warnings by @spencerkclark in #11296
• DOCS: Clarify what mode means in docstring for to_zarr by @jsignell in #11229
• Support col_wrap="auto" by @headtr1ck in #11266
• Add facetgrid_figsize option to set_options by @kkollsga in #11158
• Fix multi-coordinate indexes dropped in _replace_maybe_drop_dims by @rsignell in #11286
• Preparing Release v2026.04.0 by @jsignell in #11298

New Contributors

• @yaochengchen made their first contribution in #11185
• @BorisTheBrave made their first contribution in #11172
• @Harteg made their first contribution in #11219
• @emmanuel-ferdman made their first contribution in #11081
• @SurfyPenguin made their first contribution in #11233
• @rsignell made their first contribution in #11286

Full Changelog: v2026.02.0...v2026.04.0