# Directus v12.1.0 — Release & Upgrade Intelligence
- **Product:** Directus (https://directus.io)
- **Version:** v12.1.0
- **Released:** Jul 01, 2026
- **Impact Score:** 7/10
- **Breaking Changes:** Source flagged
- **Canonical Analysis:** https://changelogs.us/directus/updates/v12.1.0/

## Executive Summary (TL;DR)
Directus v12.1.0. Source highlight: Directus is free for individuals and organizations under $5M annual revenue and 50 employees.\

## Breaking Changes & Deprecations
- ⚠️ Potential Breaking Changes - **@directus/api**

## New Features
- Added CORS_ORIGIN checks for websocket connections (#27812 by @br41nslug)
- Added `PROJECT_OWNER_ENABLED` env var to allow disabling owner info collection and sync (#27802 by @ComfortablyCoding)
- Replaced tooltip with Reka UI one (#27029 by @HZooly)
- Added `v-kbd` component and support `{ text, kbd }` syntax in tooltip (#27029 by @HZooly)
- Updated bundled `esbuild` to `0.28.1` (resolves GHSA-gv7w-rqvm-qjhr) (#27738 by @br41nslug)
- Added `PROJECT_OWNER_ENABLED` env var to allow disabling owner info collection and sync (#27802 by @ComfortablyCoding)

## Bug Fixes
- Fixed failed TUS file replacements leaving orphaned file records. Hardened upload path validation to prevent writes to extension and temporary storage directories (#27803 by @br41nslug)
- Hardened the published Docker image and added a distroless Docker Hardened Image (DHI) variant alongside it. The standard image now applies outstanding OS-level patches at build time and drops `npm`/`npx` from the runtime; the new DHI variant is published under a `-dhi` tag suffix (#27670 by @br41nslug)
- Restored pre-v12 back button behavior: returns to the previously visited item/page when navigating via a relation, and to the collection listing when landing on an item directly (#27799 by @robluton)
- Fixed the public page foreground image rendering side-by-side with the shader background instead of overlaying it (#27782 by @alvarosabu)
- Added clearable indicator to input hash field (#27729 by @robluton)
- Added lazy loading of social icons on v-button (#27724 by @alvarosabu)