This is high-level only and doesn't include all issues, bugs, etc. from every repo, just intended to give a general idea of release scope and direction.

The following high-level features are planned for the ASP.NET Core 2.1 release:

• SignalR - Real-time web framework on ASP.NET Core (SignalR - BIG ROCKS SignalR#394)
• HTTPS - On by default and easy to configure (Improvements to HTTPS dotnet/aspnetcore#2308)
• GDPR compliance - Templates updated with new privacy features (Cookie consent feature Security#1561, GDPR Support Identity#1341)
• Web API conventions - Rich Swagger support without attributes (Require attribute routing with [ApiController] Mvc#6870, Make default apidescription provider understand ActionResult<T> Mvc#6784)
• IHttpClientFactory - HttpClient as a service, handle cross-cutting concerns like caching, retry logic, timeouts and circuit breakers (HttpClientFactory 2.1 feature HttpClientFactory#42)
• ASP.NET Core Module in-proc hosting - 6x the throughput on IIS! Better startup error handling (ANCM in-process AspNetCoreModule#265)
• Razor pages improvements - Support for areas, ~/Pages/Shared (Use Razor Pages in MVC area Mvc#6926, Update default Razor search paths to include ~/[PagesRoot]/Shared Mvc#6604)
• MVC functional test fixture - Easily test your MVC apps end-to-end (Productize and harden our functional testing infrastructure Mvc#6233)
• Build-time Razor - Compile Razor pages and views as part of your build, improved startup performance (Improve support for precompilation of razor views in class libraries (embedded ui) Razor#1809)
• UI as a library - Package Razor pages and views as reusable libraries (Improve support for precompilation of razor views in class libraries (embedded ui) Razor#1809)
• Identity UI package and scaffolder - Add identity to any application (Identity as a library dotnet/aspnetcore#2311)
• WebHooks - Handle WebHook notifications from ASP.NET Core apps (WebHooks for ASP.NET Core WebHooks#5)

For more details on each of these features see the ASP.NET Core 2.1 roadmap post on the ASP.NET team blog.

Discussion for this issue is at dotnet/aspnetcore#2846