Cascade 0.1.0-alpha ‘Globen' released

We are pleased to announce the first release of Cascade, version 0.1.0-alpha ‘Globen’.

Cascade is a purpose-built, standalone DNSSEC signer, shaped by the real-world demands of TLD operators. Written from the ground up in Rust for safety, stability and speed, Cascade will be the next generation DNSSEC signing solution. For 15 years OpenDNSSEC served the DNSSEC community as a trusted DNSSEC signer. With the end-of-life announcement of OpenDNSSEC the future begins here with Cascade, a DNSSEC signer updated for a new era of DNSSEC signing.

As an alpha release please do not use this in production. Our goal with this release is to enable operators to try out Cascade and to gather feedback. With a first production ready version expected in the first half of 2026, your feedback is key and will shape the development of Cascade as we steam ahead.

From the start we are offering packages for installation on major operating systems and documentation to guide you. Cascade is a work-in-progress but is already capable of signing to match your workflow including automatic or manual key rollovers, built-in approval gates that let you run your own scripts to prevent a bad zone escaping into the wild, and with support for both on-disk and HSM signing keys.

And of course as with all our products we will offer paid support contracts for Cascade whether to help you migrate or be there if you need us.

Read all about the vision behind Cascade in our earlier blog post, and get started today with our packages and documentation. If the documentation doesn't answer your question or give you the guidance you need, keep checking back, Cascade is being actively developed and documented. Even better, let us know what we're missing by opening a GH issue or sending an email to cascade@nlnetlabs.nl and we'll get right on it.

To try out Cascade right now follow the installation instructions in the manual.