Versioning & Releases

This project follows a structured release strategy that balances stability with ongoing development.

Semantic Versioning

We use Semantic Versioning (MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH) for all tagged releases.

• MAJOR – breaking changes
• MINOR – new features, backwards compatible
• PATCH – bug fixes and internal improvements

Example: 1.2.3 means the 3^rd patch release of the 2^nd minor version of the 1^st major version.

Development Builds from main

Every push to the main branch automatically builds a Docker image and publishes it with the :main tag.

Use this tag for development environments:

ghcr.io/cre8/eudiplo:main

⚠️ main is always moving and may contain untagged or unreleased features.

Stable Releases

Stable releases are published via GitHub tags and follow semantic versioning. Each release creates both a versioned tag and updates the :latest tag:

ghcr.io/cre8/eudiplo:1.2.3
ghcr.io/cre8/eudiplo:latest

The :latest tag always points to the most recent stable release and is recommended for production use.

Pre-Releases

Optionally, pre-release tags such as 1.3.0-alpha.1 may be published for testing upcoming features:

ghcr.io/cre8/eudiplo:1.3.0-alpha.1

Release Automation

Releases are managed using semantic-release. It:

• Analyzes commit messages
• Determines the next version
• Updates the changelog
• Publishes a GitHub release
• Pushes Docker images

Make sure to follow the Conventional Commits specification when contributing to ensure proper versioning.

Summary

Tag	Source	Use Case
main	main branch	Development
latest	GitHub release	Production (Latest)
x.y.z (e.g. 1.2.3)	GitHub release	Specific Version
x.y.z-alpha.N	GitHub pre-release	Feature Preview / RC

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