Dark tea as a unique post-fermented tea in China is facing severe challenges in upgrading industry. The mechanism of forming the quality during the pile-fermentation process of dark tea was firstly elucidated from the perspective of chemical foundations and key driving factors to promote the high-quality development of the dark tea industry. Strategies for precise control were further thoroughly explored in response to the bottleneck of traditional methods of processing. Key breakthroughs in technology in the future including the integration of multi-omics， the construction of synthetic microbial communities， and the systems of intelligent processing are proposed. Deepening the application of microbial resources in the quality-oriented regulation， the avoidance of safety risk， and the development of functional product to construct a system of directed fermentation technology for specific quality， ultimately driving the dark tea industry towards a new stage of standardization and value-added development.