v2026.01.0

What's Changed

• new release section by @keewis in #10985
• Address pandas-related upstream errors in #10973 by @spencerkclark in #10988
• make error message more clear by @d-v-b in #10994
• Change behavior of keep_attrs in xr.where when x is a scalar by @jsignell in #10997
• Backend fastpath by @slevang in #10937
• Switch from sphinx-llms-txt => sphinx-llm by @jacobtomlinson in #11003
• Unpin array api strict by @JJFlorian in #10983
• Fix RTD builds by restricting test-nightly platforms by @max-sixty in #11021
• add drop_existing kwarg to set_xindex by @ianhi in #11008
• fix paths in readme by @JJFlorian in #11032
• Automatically create xindex by @ianhi in #11029
• FIX: assert_identical now considers xindexes + improve RangeIndex equals by @ianhi in #11035
• fix: where for cupy.array by @hoxbro in #11026
• Ensure SeasonResampler preserves datetime resolution by @spencerkclark in #11049
• Address upstream failures revealed in #11043 by @spencerkclark in #11050
• re-enable the minimum versions ci by @keewis in #11027
• Fix indexing bugs in CoordinateTransformIndex by @dcherian in #10980
• DOC: Correct grammatical errors such as 'a xarray' -> 'an xarray' by @star1327p in #11058
• documenting how xarray.dot() interacts with coordinates by @dhruvak001 in #10958
• Remove special mapping of auto to {} in open_zarr by @jsignell in #11010
• fix group by > 1 group, then map by @joshua-gould in #11005
• Add cross-links for apply_ufunc in top-level API documentation by @Sakshee-D in #11063
• Make parallel documentation builds threadsafe by @jacobtomlinson in #11009
• bug fix combined-lock-locked issue #10843 by @samay2504 in #11022
• Fix mypy errors with newer pandas-stubs by @max-sixty in #11066
• Bump the minimum version of h5netcdf to 1.4.0 in accordance with nep29 by @hmaarrfk in #11068
• chore(pixi): fix solvability on windows by @lucascolley in #11084
• Add an arithmetic_compat option to xr.set_options by @mjwillson in #10943
• Improve HTML reprs by @shoyer in #10816
• use a pixi-build-python version compatible with the newest pixi by @keewis in #11090
• Dataset.eval works with >2 dims by @max-sixty in #11064
• create a development environment by @keewis in #10995
• Better ordering of coords in repr by @jsignell in #11091
• DOC: Correct more typos in xarray documentation by @star1327p in #11092
• rolling window doc update by @barronh in #11094
• Coerce pd.StringDtype to np.dtypes.StringDType by @jsignell in #11102
• MAINT: Update pixi pin to v0.63.2 by @VeckoTheGecko in #11106
• DOCS: Update contributing instructions with note on pixi version by @VeckoTheGecko in #11108
• Use StringDType when reading from zarr string variables by @jsignell in #11097
• Optimize CFMaskScale decoder. by @dcherian in #11105
• Ensure netcdf4 is locked while closing by @dschwoerer in #10788
• Prep for new combine kwargs: improve combine docstrings, tidy up tests by @jsignell in #11080
• Improve error message when scipy is missing for NDPointIndex by @Sakshee-D in #11085
• Update whats-new for v2026.01.0 release by @dcherian in #11109

New Contributors

• @JJFlorian made their first contribution in #10983
• @joshua-gould made their first contribution in #11005
• @Sakshee-D made their first contribution in #11063
• @samay2504 made their first contribution in #11022
• @lucascolley made their first contribution in #11084

Full Changelog: v2025.12.0...v2026.01.0