Release Policy

We maintain four release channels to balance the introduction of new features with the necessity of production stability: Canary, Nightly, Stable, and LTS.

1. Long-Term Support (LTS)

The Production Standard. This version is released every June and remains supported through May of the following year.

• Priority: Maximum reliability and uptime.
• Updates: Restricted to security patches and critical bug fixes.
• Restrictions: No new features or breaking changes are introduced during the lifecycle.
• Version Tag: X.Y.Z

2. Stable

The Interim Track. This channel provides a middle ground for users who need new features sooner than the annual LTS cycle allows.

• Priority: Feature availability with validated stability.
• Lifecycle: Short-lived; support ends immediately when a newer Stable or LTS version is released.
• Updates: Receives security fixes and general bug fixes.
• Version Tag: X.Y.Z

3. Nightly / Pre-release

The Development Track. This is the staging ground for features and improvements before they are promoted to a Stable or LTS release.

• Nightly: Continuous builds generated from the active development branch.
• Pre-release: Beta candidates intended to finalize the next major release.
• Note: These builds are subject to breaking changes and are not recommended for production.

4. Canary

The Bleeding Edge. Every build from our CI/CD pipeline lands here first for immediate validation.

• Purpose: Early bug detection and rapid testing.
• Stability: Highly unstable; used for developer testing only.
• Version Tag: X.Y.Z-canary

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Development Workflow & Branching

• Main Branch: Active development. This is where all new features and breaking changes originate.
• LTS Branch: A restricted, hardened branch. Only security fixes and critical patches are cherry-picked from Main.
• Stable Branch: A snapshots of Main that has passed Nightly validation but is not yet part of the annual LTS cycle.
• Canary: Automated builds triggered directly by the CI/CD pipeline.

The Yearly Cycle

1. Continuous: All changes land in Canary first.
2. Stabilization: Validated Canary builds move to Nightly/Pre-release.
3. Intermediate: Selected Nightly builds are promoted to the Stable channel between LTS releases.
4. May: Code freeze. Final stabilization begins for the upcoming annual LTS.
5. June: New LTS launch. The previous LTS reaches End-of-Life (EOL).

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Current Status

Current Stable Release

• Version: v2.2 (Quantum Falcon)
• Target: June 2026 (LTS Promotion)
• Status: Stable. This is the current feature-complete version. It is the designated candidate for the upcoming annual LTS cycle and will become the recommended production version next month.

Current Production Release (LTS)

• Version: v2.1 (Astral Ocelot)
• Support: June 2025 – May 2026
• Status: Maintenance. This version is approaching End-of-Life (EOL). It remains supported for existing production environments until June 2026, when it will be officially replaced by Quantum Falcon.