Update JS SDK defaults config date from 2025-05-24 to 2025-11-30

Copilot · pauldambra · Copilot · commit 48cdd17d973f · 2025-11-27T00:07:25.000Z
Co-authored-by: pauldambra &lt;984817+pauldambra@users.noreply.github.com&gt;
diff --git a/contents/docs/error-tracking/installation/web.mdx b/contents/docs/error-tracking/installation/web.mdx
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ if (!window.location.host.includes('127.0.0.1') && !window.location.host.include
 <details>
 <summary>What is the `defaults` option?</summary>
 
-The `defaults` is a date, such as `2025-05-24`, for a configuration snapshot used as defaults to initialize PostHog. This default is overridden when you explicitly set a value for any of the options.
+The `defaults` is a date, such as `2025-11-30`, for a configuration snapshot used as defaults to initialize PostHog. This default is overridden when you explicitly set a value for any of the options.
 
 </details>
 
diff --git a/contents/docs/integrate/_snippets/install-web.mdx b/contents/docs/integrate/_snippets/install-web.mdx
@@ -79,6 +79,6 @@ if (!window.location.host.includes('127.0.0.1') && !window.location.host.include
 <details>
 <summary>What is the `defaults` option?</summary>
 
-The `defaults` is a date, such as `2025-05-24`, for a configuration snapshot used as defaults to initialize PostHog. This default is overridden when you explicitly set a value for any of the options.
+The `defaults` is a date, such as `2025-11-30`, for a configuration snapshot used as defaults to initialize PostHog. This default is overridden when you explicitly set a value for any of the options.
 
 </details>
diff --git a/contents/docs/libraries/angular.mdx b/contents/docs/libraries/angular.mdx
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ import AngularInstall from "../integrate/_snippets/install-angular.mdx"
 
 ## Tracking pageviews
 
-PostHog automatically tracks your pageviews by hooking up to the browser's `navigator` API as long as you initialize PostHog with the `defaults` config option set after `2025-05-24`.
+PostHog automatically tracks your pageviews by hooking up to the browser's `navigator` API as long as you initialize PostHog with the `defaults` config option set after `2025-11-30`.
 
 ## Capture custom events
 
diff --git a/contents/docs/libraries/js/config.mdx b/contents/docs/libraries/js/config.mdx
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ Some of the most relevant options are:
 | `autocapture`<br/><br/>**Type:** Boolean or AutocaptureConfig<br/>**Default:** `true`                                                                                                      | Determines if PostHog should [autocapture](/docs/product-analytics/autocapture) events. This setting does not affect capturing pageview events (see `capture_pageview`).  [See below for `AutocaptureConfig`](#configuring-autocapture)                                                                          |
 | `before_send`<br/><br/>**Type:** Function<br/>**Default:** `function () {}`                                                                                                               | A function that allows you to amend or reject events before they are sent to PostHog. [See below for more information](/docs/libraries/js/features#amending-or-sampling-events)                                                                                                                                |
 | `bootstrap`<br/><br/>**Type:** Object<br/>**Default:** `{}`                                                                                                                               | An object containing the `distinctID`, `isIdentifiedID`, and `featureFlags` keys, where `distinctID` is a string, and `featureFlags` is an object of key-value pairs                                                                                                                                            |
-| `capture_pageview`<br/><br/>**Type:** Boolean or String<br/>**Default:** `true`                                                                                                           | Determines if PostHog should automatically capture pageview events. The default is to capture using page load events. If the special string `history_change` is provided, PostHog will capture pageviews based on path changes by listening to the browser's history API which is useful for single page apps. `history_change` is the default if you choose to set `defaults: '2025-05-24'` or later. |
+| `capture_pageview`<br/><br/>**Type:** Boolean or String<br/>**Default:** `true`                                                                                                           | Determines if PostHog should automatically capture pageview events. The default is to capture using page load events. If the special string `history_change` is provided, PostHog will capture pageviews based on path changes by listening to the browser's history API which is useful for single page apps. `history_change` is the default if you choose to set `defaults: '2025-11-30'` or later. |
 | `capture_pageleave`<br/><br/>**Type:** Boolean<br/>**Default:** `true`                                                                                                                    | Determines if PostHog should automatically capture pageleave events.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
 | `capture_dead_clicks`<br/><br/>**Type:** Boolean<br/>**Default:** `true`                                                                                                                  | Determines if PostHog should automatically capture dead click events.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
 | `cross_subdomain_cookie`<br/><br/>**Type:** Boolean<br/>**Default:** `true`                                                                                                               | Determines if cookie should be set on the top level domain (example.com). If `posthog-js` is loaded on a subdomain (`test.example.com`), _and_ `cross_subdomain_cookie` is set to false, it'll set the cookie on the subdomain only (`test.example.com`).                                                      |
diff --git a/contents/docs/libraries/next-js/index.mdx b/contents/docs/libraries/next-js/index.mdx
@@ -187,12 +187,12 @@ The problem with this is that it can cause a [hydration and/or mismatch error](h
 
 ### Why did the pageview component need a `useEffect`?
 
-Before updating the JavaScript Web SDK's default behavior when capturing pageviews (`'2025-05-24'`), we suggested using a `useEffect` hook to capture pageviews. This is because it's the simplest way to accurately capture pageviews. Other approaches include:
+Before updating the JavaScript Web SDK's default behavior when capturing pageviews (`'2025-11-30'`), we suggested using a `useEffect` hook to capture pageviews. This is because it's the simplest way to accurately capture pageviews. Other approaches include:
 
 1. Not using a `useEffect` hook, but this might lead to duplicate page views being tracked if the component re-renders for reasons other than navigation. It might work depending on your implementation.
 2. Using `window.navigation` to track pageviews, but this approach is more complex and is [not supported](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/navigation) in all browsers.
 
-> **Note:** This approach of manually capturing pageviews is no longer recommended. We recommend using `defaults: '2025-05-24'` or `capture_pageview: 'history_change'` instead, which automatically handles both `$pageview` and `$pageleave` events.
+> **Note:** This approach of manually capturing pageviews is no longer recommended. We recommend using `defaults: '2025-11-30'` or `capture_pageview: 'history_change'` instead, which automatically handles both `$pageview` and `$pageleave` events.
 >
 > If you're still capturing pageviews manually, you should also capture `$pageleave` events to track important engagement metrics like time on page (`$prev_pageview_duration`) and scroll depth (`$prev_pageview_max_scroll_percentage`). To do this, set up a listener on window unload (similar to [how PostHog does it](https://github.com/PostHog/posthog-js/blob/main/packages/browser/src/posthog-core.ts#L644-L646)):
 >
diff --git a/contents/handbook/content/docs-style-guide.mdx b/contents/handbook/content/docs-style-guide.mdx
@@ -340,7 +340,7 @@ You can use magic placeholders to replace the project API key, project name, app
 | `<ph_app_host>`            | Your PostHog instance URL     | `<ph_app_host>`                                 |
 | `<ph_client_api_host>`     | Your PostHog client API host  | `https://us.i.posthog.com`                      |
 | `<ph_region>`              | Your PostHog region (us/eu)   | `<ph_region>`                                   |
-| `<ph_posthog_js_defaults>` | Default values for posthog-js | `2025-05-24`                                    |
+| `<ph_posthog_js_defaults>` | Default values for posthog-js | `2025-11-30`                                    |
 | `<ph_proxy_path>`          | Your proxy path               | `relay-XXXX` (last 4 digits of project API key) |
 
 You can use these placeholders in the code block like this:
diff --git a/contents/tutorials/event-tracking-guide.md b/contents/tutorials/event-tracking-guide.md
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ Although autocapture is a great way to get started, it can be limiting for more
 
 3. **Customization**. Although it is possible to [add properties to autocapture](/docs/product-analytics/autocapture#capturing-additional-properties-in-autocapture-events), getting exactly the data you want at the exact moment you want requires customization.
 
-4. **Pageviews rely on page loads**. Pageview captures rely on page load events. This means they don't work well with [single-page apps (SPAs)](/tutorials/single-page-app-pageviews). To fix this, you can rely on the [history API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/History_API) to capture pageviews by setting the `capture_pageview` configuration option to `history_change` or by using the most recent `defaults: '2025-05-24'`.
+4. **Pageviews rely on page loads**. Pageview captures rely on page load events. This means they don't work well with [single-page apps (SPAs)](/tutorials/single-page-app-pageviews). To fix this, you can rely on the [history API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/History_API) to capture pageviews by setting the `capture_pageview` configuration option to `history_change` or by using the most recent `defaults: '2025-11-30'`.
 
 ## Setting up custom events
 
diff --git a/contents/tutorials/nextjs-analytics.md b/contents/tutorials/nextjs-analytics.md
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ import posthog from 'posthog-js'
 
 posthog.init(process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_KEY, {
   api_host: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_HOST,
-  defaults: '2025-05-24',
+  defaults: '2025-11-30',
 });
 ```
 
diff --git a/contents/tutorials/nextjs-pages-analytics.md b/contents/tutorials/nextjs-pages-analytics.md
@@ -295,7 +295,7 @@ import posthog from 'posthog-js'
 
 posthog.init(process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_KEY, {
   api_host: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_HOST,
-  defaults: '2025-05-24'
+  defaults: '2025-11-30'
 });
 ```
 
diff --git a/contents/tutorials/single-page-app-pageviews.md b/contents/tutorials/single-page-app-pageviews.md
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ A single-page application (or SPA) dynamically loads content for new pages using
 
 PostHog's JavaScript Web SDK automatically captures pageview events on page load. The problem with SPAs is that **page loads don't happen beyond the initial one**. This means user navigation in your SPA isn't tracked.
 
-Luckily, you can opt-in to tracking this behavior by setting `defaults: '2025-05-24'` when initializing PostHog to use the most recent defaults. This default uses `capture_pageview: 'history_change'`, which captures SPA navigation using the browser [history API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/History_API) 
+Luckily, you can opt-in to tracking this behavior by setting `defaults: '2025-11-30'` when initializing PostHog to use the most recent defaults. This default uses `capture_pageview: 'history_change'`, which captures SPA navigation using the browser [history API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/History_API) 
 
 This tutorial shows you how to follow the recommended approach for the most popular SPA frameworks like [Next.js](#tracking-pageviews-in-nextjs-app-router), [Vue](#tracking-pageviews-in-vue), [Svelte](#tracking-pageviews-in-svelte), and [Angular](#tracking-pageviews-in-angular). 
 
diff --git a/src/components/CodeBlock/index.tsx b/src/components/CodeBlock/index.tsx
@@ -214,7 +214,7 @@ export const CodeBlock = ({
             .replace(/<ph_app_host>/g, removeQuotes(appHost) || '<ph_app_host>')
             .replace(/<ph_client_api_host>/g, removeQuotes(clientApiHost) || 'https://us.i.posthog.com')
             .replace(/<ph_region>/g, removeQuotes(region) || '<ph_region>')
-            .replace(/<ph_posthog_js_defaults>/g, '2025-05-24')
+            .replace(/<ph_posthog_js_defaults>/g, '2025-11-30')
             .replace(
                 /<ph_proxy_path>/g,
                 projectToken ? `relay-${removeQuotes(projectToken)?.slice(-4)}` : '<ph_proxy_path>'

Original file line number	Diff line number	Diff line change
`@@ -187,12 +187,12 @@ The problem with this is that it can cause a [hydration and/or mismatch error](h`
`187`	`187`
`188`	`188`	### Why did the pageview component need a `useEffect`?
`189`	`189`
`190`		-Before updating the JavaScript Web SDK's default behavior when capturing pageviews (`'2025-05-24'`), we suggested using a `useEffect` hook to capture pageviews. This is because it's the simplest way to accurately capture pageviews. Other approaches include:
	`190`	+Before updating the JavaScript Web SDK's default behavior when capturing pageviews (`'2025-11-30'`), we suggested using a `useEffect` hook to capture pageviews. This is because it's the simplest way to accurately capture pageviews. Other approaches include:
`191`	`191`
`192`	`192`	1. Not using a `useEffect` hook, but this might lead to duplicate page views being tracked if the component re-renders for reasons other than navigation. It might work depending on your implementation.
`193`	`193`	2. Using `window.navigation` to track pageviews, but this approach is more complex and is [not supported](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/navigation) in all browsers.
`194`	`194`
`195`		-> Note: This approach of manually capturing pageviews is no longer recommended. We recommend using `defaults: '2025-05-24'` or `capture_pageview: 'history_change'` instead, which automatically handles both `$pageview` and `$pageleave` events.
	`195`	+> Note: This approach of manually capturing pageviews is no longer recommended. We recommend using `defaults: '2025-11-30'` or `capture_pageview: 'history_change'` instead, which automatically handles both `$pageview` and `$pageleave` events.
`196`	`196`	`>`
`197`	`197`	> If you're still capturing pageviews manually, you should also capture `$pageleave` events to track important engagement metrics like time on page (`$prev_pageview_duration`) and scroll depth (`$prev_pageview_max_scroll_percentage`). To do this, set up a listener on window unload (similar to [how PostHog does it](https://github.com/PostHog/posthog-js/blob/main/packages/browser/src/posthog-core.ts#L644-L646)):
`198`	`198`	`>`