Below is the auto-generated changelog, which includes all PRs that went into the release. For a shorter version that highlights only important changes, see CHANGELOG.md.

What's Changed

🚀 Features

• Add Session Persistence support for NGINX OSS and Plus users by @salonichf5 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4471
• Allow users to specify escape format when customizing the data plane access logs by @michasHL in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4530
• Enables keepAlive directive to 16 by default by @salonichf5 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4524
• Add TCPRoute and UDPRoute Support for L4 Load Balancing by @Skcey in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4518
• Support Basic Auth through AuthenticationFilter by @shaun-nx in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4575
• feat: Add CRD discovery for BackendTLSPolicy and experimental CRDs by @ciarams87 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4569
• Add SnippetsPolicy for Gateway level by @fabian4 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4461
• Add proxy settings policy by @ciarams87 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4592
• Support watching subset of namespaces by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4606
• Support Rate Limiting through RateLimitPolicy by @bjee19 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4633
• Add TLS Options support for Gateway by @dhurley in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4639

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Use container UUID instead of IP address for tracking agent by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4470
• Preserve external controller annotations for deployment and daemonSet by @salonichf5 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4468
• Fix hostNetwork data plane pod connection issue by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4481
• Prevent unnecessary data plane restarts by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4555
• Add RouteType to L4Route struct by @shaun-nx in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4646
• Ensure agent collector logs go to stdout by @dhurley in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4656
• Confirm auth filter secret is referenced and exists by @shaun-nx in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4654

📦 Helm Chart

• Update docs for 2.3.0 release by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4491
• feat(chart): add priorityClassName for control plane pod by @starlightromero in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4356
• Include Gateway TLS spec in Helm template by @kwentine in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4514
• Update dependency dadav/helm-schema to v0.20.0 by @renovate[bot] in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4558
• add support for the GatewaySpecAddress to the gateway configuration by @rushikesh-outbound in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4605
• Add snippets helm flag and example changes for snippets doc update by @bjee19 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4628
• Release 2.4.0 by @github-actions[bot] in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4669

🧪 Tests

• Update Helm release opentelemetry-collector to v0.143.0 by @renovate[bot] in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4464, https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4504, https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4516, https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4580
• NFR Test Results for NGF version edge by @github-actions[bot] in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4467
• NFR Test Results for NGF version v2.3.0 (#4453) by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4475
• Fix inference conformance duplication by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4492
• Test: replace context.TODO and context.Background to t.Context in uni… by @richie-king in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4355
• Fix GW API version for NFR tests by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4528
• Update curlimages/curl Docker tag to v8.18.0 by @renovate[bot] in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4566
• Refactor test options by @tataruty in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4582
• Increase test coverage for stream servers; add UDP to feature list by @ciarams87 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4563
• Add CEL tests for SnippetsPolicy by @tataruty in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4603
• Update docker/dockerfile Docker tag to v1.21 by @renovate[bot] in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4642
• Update telemetry collector for release 2.4 by @shaun-nx in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4659
• NFR Test Results for NGF version 2.4.0 by @github-actions[bot] in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4660

📝 Documentation

• Update AuthenticationFilter proposal by @shaun-nx in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4424
• Implementable RateLimitPolicy proposal by @bjee19 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4346
• Add doc describing provisioning restrictions by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4499
• Add example files for TCPRoute and UDPRoute user guides. by @salonichf5 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4573
• Update functional test to cover JWT auth by @shaun-nx in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4593
• Add details on JWKS creation for use in JWT auth secret by @shaun-nx in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4599
• Update RateLimitPolicy example files to guide by @bjee19 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4634

🔨 Maintenance

• Rename context package to avoid linter errors in pipeline by @salonichf5 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4476
• Update GOPROXY for forks; skip UBI plus by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4493
• Add correlation_id to logs by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4506
• Run create/update draft on manual workflows by @ciarams87 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4526
• Automate Operator certification by @ciarams87 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4288
• Merge open actions PRs into a single PR by @ciarams87 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4564
• Remove FOSSA by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4576
• Temporarily switch to dev artifactory by @ciarams87 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4594
• Chore: readd prod artifactory by @ciarams87 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4604
• Remove internal redirect statuscode validation by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4600
• Fix events RBAC and action by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4638
• Render snippets-filter flag when specified by @sjberman in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4650
• Update glib2 and libpng packages for cves by @bjee19 in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4648

⬆️ Dependencies

Other Changes

• Ensure NGINX Agent default metrics pipeline is not overridden when NGINX One reporting is configured by @dhurley in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4658

New Contributors

• @richie-king made their first contribution in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4355
• @starlightromero made their first contribution in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4356
• @kwentine made their first contribution in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4514
• @Skcey made their first contribution in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4518
• @rushikesh-outbound made their first contribution in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4605
• @dhurley made their first contribution in https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/pull/4656

Full Changelog: https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/compare/v2.3.0...v2.4.0