godot-docs/about/release_policy.rst

.. _doc_release_policy:

Godot release policy
====================

Godot's release policy is in constant evolution. The description below
provides a general idea of what to expect, but what will actually
happen depends on the choices of core contributors and the needs of the
community at a given time.

Godot versioning
----------------

Godot loosely follows `Semantic Versioning <https://semver.org/>`__ with a
``major.minor.patch`` versioning system, albeit with an interpretation of each
term adapted to the complexity of a game engine:

- The ``major`` version is incremented when major compatibility breakages happen
  which imply significant porting work to move projects from one major version
  to another.

  For example, porting Godot projects from Godot 3.x to Godot 4.x requires
  running the project through a conversion tool, and then performing a number
  of further adjustments manually for what the tool could not do automatically.

- The ``minor`` version is incremented for feature releases that do not break
  compatibility in a major way. Minor compatibility breakage in very specific
  areas *may* happen in minor versions, but the vast majority of projects
  should not be affected or require significant porting work.

  This is because Godot, as a game engine, covers many areas like rendering,
  physics, and scripting. Fixing bugs or implementing new features in one area
  might sometimes require changing a feature's behavior or modifying a class's
  interface, even if the rest of the engine API remains backwards compatible.

.. tip::

    Upgrading to a new minor version is recommended for all users,
    but some testing is necessary to ensure that your project still behaves as
    expected.

- The ``patch`` version is incremented for maintenance releases which focus on
  fixing bugs and security issues, implementing new requirements for platform
  support, and backporting safe usability enhancements. Patch releases are
  backwards compatible.

  Patch versions may include minor new features which do not impact the
  existing API, and thus have no risk of impacting existing projects.

.. tip::

    Updating to new patch versions is therefore considered safe and strongly
    recommended to all users of a given stable branch.

We call ``major.minor`` combinations *stable branches*. Each stable branch
starts with a ``major.minor`` release (without the ``0`` for ``patch``) and is
further developed for maintenance releases in a Git branch of the same name
(for example patch updates for the 4.0 stable branch are developed in the
``4.0`` Git branch).

Release support timeline
------------------------

Stable branches are supported *at least* until the next stable branch is
released and has received its first patch update. In practice, we support
stable branches on a *best effort* basis for as long as they have active users
who need maintenance updates.

Whenever a new major version is released, we make the previous stable branch a
long-term supported release, and do our best to provide fixes for issues
encountered by users of that branch who cannot port complex projects to the new
major version. This was the case for the 2.1 branch, and is the case for the
3.6 branch.

In a given minor release series, only the latest patch release receives support.
If you experience an issue using an older patch release, please upgrade to the
latest patch release of that series and test again before reporting an issue
on GitHub.

+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **Version**  | **Release date**     | **Support level**                                                        |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 4.3    | June 2024            | |unstable| *Development.* Receives new features, usability and           |
| (`master`)   | (estimate)           | performance improvements, as well as bug fixes, while under development. |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 4.2    | November 2023        | |supported| Receives fixes for bugs and security issues, as well as      |
|              |                      | patches that enable platform support.                                    |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 4.1    | July 2023            | |supported| Receives fixes for bugs and security issues, as well as      |
|              |                      | patches that enable platform support.                                    |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 4.0    | March 2023           | |eol| No longer supported (last update: 4.0.4).                          |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 3.6    | Q1 2024 (estimate)   | |supported| *Beta.* Receives new features, usability and performance     |
| (`3.x`, LTS) |                      | improvements, as well as bug fixes, while under development.             |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 3.5    | August 2022          | |supported| Receives fixes for bugs and security issues, as well as      |
|              |                      | patches that enable platform support.                                    |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 3.4    | November 2021        | |eol| No longer supported (last update: 3.4.5).                          |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 3.3    | April 2021           | |eol| No longer supported (last update: 3.3.4).                          |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 3.2    | January 2020         | |eol| No longer supported (last update: 3.2.3).                          |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 3.1    | March 2019           | |eol| No longer supported (last update: 3.1.2).                          |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 3.0    | January 2018         | |eol| No longer supported (last update: 3.0.6).                          |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 2.1    | July 2016            | |eol| No longer supported (last update: 2.1.6).                          |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 2.0    | February 2016        | |eol| No longer supported (last update: 2.0.4.1).                        |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 1.1    | May 2015             | |eol| No longer supported.                                               |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Godot 1.0    | December 2014        | |eol| No longer supported.                                               |
+--------------+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

.. |supported| image:: img/supported.png
.. |partial| image:: img/partial.png
.. |eol| image:: img/eol.png
.. |unstable| image:: img/unstable.png

**Legend:**
|supported| Full support –
|partial| Partial support –
|eol| No support (end of life) –
|unstable| Development version

Pre-release Godot versions aren't intended to be used in production and are
provided for testing purposes only.

.. seealso::

    See :ref:`doc_upgrading_to_godot_4` for instructions on migrating a project
    from Godot 3.x to 4.x.

.. _doc_release_policy_which_version_should_i_use:

Which version should I use for a new project?
---------------------------------------------

We recommend using Godot 4.x for new projects, as the Godot 4.x series will be
supported long after 3.x stops receiving updates in the future. One caveat is
that a lot of third-party documentation hasn't been updated for Godot 4.x yet.
If you have to follow a tutorial designed for Godot 3.x, we recommend keeping
:ref:`doc_upgrading_to_godot_4` open in a separate tab to check which methods
have been renamed (if you get a script error while trying to use a specific node
or method that was renamed in Godot 4.x).

If your project requires a feature that is missing in 4.x (such as GLES2/WebGL
1.0), you should use Godot 3.x for a new project instead.

.. _doc_release_policy_should_i_upgrade_my_project:

Should I upgrade my project to use new engine versions?
-------------------------------------------------------

.. note::

    Upgrading software while working on a project is inherently risky, so
    consider whether it's a good idea for your project before attempting an
    upgrade. Also, make backups of your project or use version control to
    prevent losing data in case the upgrade goes wrong.

    That said, we do our best to keep minor and especially patch releases
    compatible with existing projects.

The general recommendation is to upgrade your project to follow new *patch*
releases, such as upgrading from 4.0.2 to 4.0.3. This ensures you get bug fixes,
security updates and platform support updates (which is especially important for
mobile platforms). You also get continued support, as only the last patch
release receives support on official community platforms.

For *minor* releases, you should determine whether it's a good idea to upgrade
on a case-by-case basis. We've made a lot of effort in making the upgrade
process as seamless as possible, but some breaking changes may be present in
minor releases, along with a greater risk of regressions. Some fixes included in
minor releases may also change a class' expected behavior as required to fix
some bugs. This is especially the case in classes marked as *experimental* in
the documentation.

*Major* releases bring a lot of new functionality, but they also remove
previously existing functionality and may raise hardware requirements. They also
require much more work to upgrade to compared to minor releases. As a result, we
recommend sticking with the major release you've started your project with if
you are happy with how your project currently works. For example, if your
project was started with 3.5, we recommend upgrading to 3.5.2 and possibly 3.6
in the future, but not to 4.0+, unless your project really needs the new
features that come with 4.0+.

.. _doc_release_policy_when_is_next_release_out:

When is the next release out?
-----------------------------

While Godot contributors aren't working under any deadlines, we strive to
publish minor releases relatively frequently.

In particular, after the very length release cycle for 4.0, we are pivoting to
a faster paced development workflow, 4.1 released 4 months after 4.0, and 4.2
released 4 months after 4.1

Frequent minor releases will enable us to ship new features faster (possibly
as experimental), get user feedback quickly, and iterate to improve those
features and their usability. Likewise, the general user experience will be
improved more steadily with a faster path to the end users.

Maintenance (patch) releases are released as needed with potentially very
short development cycles, to provide users of the current stable branch with
the latest bug fixes for their production needs.

The 3.6 release is still planned and should be the last stable branch of Godot
3.x. It will be a Long-Term Support (LTS) release, which we plan to support for
as long as users still need it (due to missing features in Godot 4.x, or
having published games which they need to keep updating for platform
requirements).

What are the criteria for compatibility across engine versions?
---------------------------------------------------------------

.. note::

    This section is intended to be used by contributors to determine which
    changes are safe for a given release. The list is not exhaustive; it only
    outlines the most common situations encountered during Godot's development.

The following changes are acceptable in patch releases:

- Fixing a bug in a way that has no major negative impact on most projects, such
  as a visual or physics bug. Godot's physics engine is not deterministic, so
  physics bug fixes are not considered to break compatibility. If fixing a bug
  has a negative impact that could impact a lot of projects, it should be made
  optional (e.g. using a project setting or separate method).
- Adding a new optional parameter to a method.
- Small-scale editor usability tweaks.

Note that we tend to be more conservative with the fixes we allow in each
subsequent patch release. For instance, 4.0.1 may receive more impactful fixes
than 4.0.4 would.

The following changes are acceptable in minor releases, but not patch releases:

- Significant new features.
- Renaming a method parameter. In C#, method parameters can be passed by name
  (but not in GDScript). As a result, this can break some projects that use C#.
- Deprecating a method, member variable, or class. This is done by adding a
  deprecated flag to its class reference, which will show up in the editor. When
  a method is marked as deprecated, it's slated to be removed in the next
  *major* release.
- Changes that affect the default project theme's visuals.
- Bug fixes which significantly change the behavior or the output, with the aim
  to meet user expectations better. In comparison, in patch releases, we may
  favor keeping a buggy behavior so we don't break existing projects which
  likely already rely on the bug or use a workaround.
- Performance optimizations that result in visual changes.

The following changes are considered **compatibility-breaking** and can only be
performed in a new major release:

- Renaming or removing a method, member variable, or class.
- Modifying a node's inheritance tree by making it inherit from a different class.
- Changing the default value of a project setting value in a way that affects existing
  projects. To only affect new projects, the project manager should write a
  modified ``project.godot`` instead.

Since Godot 5.0 hasn't been branched off yet, we currently discourage making
compatibility-breaking changes of this kind.

.. note::

      When modifying a method's signature in any fashion (including adding an
      optional parameter), a GDExtension compatibility method must be created.
      This ensures that existing GDExtensions continue to work across patch and
      minor releases, so that users don't have to recompile them.
      See :ref:`doc_handling_compatibility_breakages` for more information.