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Vue Vapor Mode is an opt-in compilation mode for Vue Single-File Components (SFCs), designed to reduce baseline bundle size and improve performance. It is not enabled for every component automatically, and it is not a drop-in fit for every Vue component: Vapor does not support the Options API or features that depend on VNodes or the component public instance proxy.
Release status is important: on October 7, 2026, Vue’s release list showed v3.6.0-rc.10 as a pre-release and v3.5.43 as the latest stable release. Vue’s policy says release candidates are unstable and should not be used in production.
What Vapor Mode changes
Conventional Vue compilation uses the Virtual DOM-based rendering path. Vapor is an alternative compilation strategy for SFCs. The Vue core maintainers described its goal as “reducing baseline bundle size and improving performance” in the v3.6.0-rc.1 release notes.
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Vapor is a compiler and rendering option within Vue, not a separate general-purpose framework. The RC notes say supported API behavior is mostly identical, but that does not guarantee every existing component or third-party library will work unchanged. In particular, Vapor excludes features that rely on VNodes or the component public instance proxy.
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How to opt a component into Vapor
The release notes document an explicit vapor attribute on the script block. For example:
<script setup vapor>
// component logic
</script>
<template>
<!-- component template -->
</template>The shorthand <script vapor> is also documented for <script setup vapor>. Template-only SFCs are supported as well. The attribute makes adoption component-specific; it does not silently switch an entire application to Vapor. See the Vue 3.6 RC notes for the documented forms.
Compatibility limits to check
- Options API: Vapor components do not support the Options API.
- VNode-dependent patterns: APIs or libraries that depend on VNodes are unavailable in Vapor mode.
- Public instance proxy: features that require the component public instance proxy are also unavailable.
- Tooling and dependencies: check compatibility against the exact Vue RC you plan to evaluate. The reviewed release material does not provide a complete compatibility matrix for every build tool, language tool, or ecosystem package.
These boundaries make a component and dependency audit more useful than assuming a Vapor component is interchangeable with a conventional one. Existing Vue components can remain on the conventional rendering path while supported components are evaluated individually.
Vue 3.6 release status and stability
As listed by Vue core on October 7, 2026, v3.6.0-rc.10 was released September 30 and marked as a pre-release; v3.5.43, released September 17, carried the “Latest” label. Those dates and labels describe the release list on that date, not a forecast for when Vue 3.6 will become stable. Check the Vue core releases for the current status.
The Vue release policy says the project has no fixed release cycle; minor releases typically arrive three to six months apart and go through a beta phase. Vue describes alpha, beta, and RC builds as unstable, intended for integration and stability testing and feedback, and not for production use. It also advises pinning exact versions when using pre-releases.
The RC announcement said the intended Vapor feature set was complete and that Vue 3.6 was entering the release-candidate phase. “Feature-complete” describes the planned scope; it does not change the project’s warning that an RC remains unstable.
How to evaluate Vapor in an existing app
- Choose a performance-sensitive component or page. Start with a bounded part of the application rather than assuming a whole-app migration is necessary.
- Check its APIs and dependencies. Look for Options API usage, VNode access, public instance proxy dependencies, and libraries that rely on those patterns.
- Pin the exact Vue RC. Use an exact version for the evaluation, as Vue recommends for pre-releases, and verify that your build and language tooling work with it.
- Compare the same workload. Measure bundle contribution and runtime behavior for the chosen component under the conventional and Vapor paths, using the same application conditions.
- Keep a rollback boundary. Limit the experiment to components that can be returned to the conventional path if compatibility or measured results are unsatisfactory.
Assess the two rendering choices against compatibility, VNode and public-instance requirements, baseline bundle contribution, runtime behavior for the actual workload, integration effort, rollback scope, and the stability of the Vue version. The official RC material describes Vapor’s goal and mentions third-party benchmarks qualitatively, but it does not provide an attributable numeric result or benchmark method. Treat performance as something to measure in your application, not a guaranteed percentage improvement.
How Vapor fits into Vue’s development direction
In a 2022 year-in-review, Evan You described Vapor as opt-in, aimed at performance-sensitive use cases, and intended to allow Vapor subtrees inside existing Vue 3 apps. That post also described removing the Virtual DOM runtime from an all-Vapor app as a goal. These are historical design intentions; for current syntax, constraints, and release status, use the Vue 3.6 RC notes and Vue’s current documentation.
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