Semantic Versioning

Version numbers follow the format Major.Minor.Patch (e.g., 1.14.10).

Stable Software (1.0.0+)

Change type	Bump	Reset	Example
Breaking change	Major	Minor and Patch to 0	`1.14.10` -> `2.0.0`
New feature or backwards-compatible behavior change	Minor	Patch to 0	`1.14.10` -> `1.15.0`
Bug fix or security fix (backwards-compatible)	Patch	Nothing	`1.14.10` -> `1.14.11`

Reserve patch releases exclusively for fixes. Lack-of-feature is not a bug — use minor releases for those.

Consumer guarantee: newer releases within the same major version are safe to upgrade to.

Unstable Software (0.x.x)

Software with major version 0 is unstable — no stability commitment yet.

Change type	Bump	Example
Bug fix or security fix	Patch	`0.3.2` -> `0.3.3`
Everything else (features AND breaking changes)	Minor	`0.3.2` -> `0.4.0`

Start development at 0.1.0.
Release 1.0.0 when ready to commit to stability.

Consumer guarantee: fixes available within the same minor version.

Breaking Changes

Semver communicates breaking changes clearly — but does not make them cheap. For popular software with many downstream consumers, partial upgrades create ecosystem fragmentation.

Guidelines:

Avoid major version bumps for as long as possible.
If a major bump is unavoidable, provide a gradual migration path.
Do not treat semver as a license to make breaking changes.

semver

Semantic Versioning

Stable Software (1.0.0+)

Unstable Software (0.x.x)

Breaking Changes