Release Plan
Updated: 2020-07-01
This plan is a guide for how the project plans to schedule upcoming releases, taking into account the release schedule of the underlying Node.js runtime.
The active Node-RED stream (1.x) will get a new minor version release (for example, 1.1 -> 1.2) every three months. Maintenance releases (for example 1.1.0 -> 1.1.1) will continue to happen as and when they are needed.
At the end of April 2021, when Node 10.x reaches its end-of-life, we will publish Node-RED 2.x that will drop support for both Node 8.x and Node 10.x.
The 1.x stream will then enter maintenance mode. It will only receive bug fixes and security updates. New features could get back-ported from 2.x if there was a very good reason to do so as well as people available to do the work.
The 2.x stream will continue in active development with a minor release every three months or so until April 2022 when Node 12.x reaches its end-of-life. We then publish Node-RED 3.x and the cycle continues. The 1.x stream will reach its end-of-life soon after the 3.x release. The exact timing of that will be something we will need to discuss further.
This proposal means:
- We have a regular cycle of releases - getting new features into the hands of users.
- We have a schedule to help us prioritise and plan backlog items.
- We can provide longer-term stable releases with a well-known end of life.
- We have a plan that enables us to make potentially breaking changes once a year.
| Release | Initial | Maintenance Start | End-of-life |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.x | 2019-09-30 | 2021-04-30 | 2022-06-30 |
| 2.x | 2021-04-30 | 2022-04-30 | 2023-06-30 |
| 3.x | 2022-04-30 | 2023-04-30 | 2024-06-30 |
Dates are subject to change
References:
