Astronomer supports a variety of policies that drives the naming, release cadence, and maintenance commitments associated with all published software.
This document offers guidelines on the version lifecycle of Astronomer Software. It includes a description of:
For information on the latest Astronomer Software releases, see Release notes. For information on compatibility between all versioned software, see Software Version compatibility reference.
To meet the unique needs of different operating environments, we offer all Astronomer customers two release channels:
All releases of AC are considered stable. The LTS release channel is a subset of the stable release channel that promises additional stability, reliability, and support from our team.
For customers looking to access Astronomer’s newest features on an incremental basis, Astronomer recommends following the stable release channel and upgrading to new versions as soon as they are made available. Stable releases are issued approximately once per quarter for Astronomer Software and the Astro CLI.
For customers looking for less frequent upgrades and functional changes, we recommend following the LTS release channel. Release channels are not binding, so you are free to upgrade to any available version of Astronomer Software at any time.
Astronomer follows Semantic Versioning for all published software. This means that we use Major, Minor, and Patch releases across our product in the format of major.minor.patch.
It is considered safe to upgrade to minor and patch versions within a major version. Upgrade guidance for major and LTS versions is provided with each release.
The maintenance period for an Astronomer Software version depends on its release channel:
For each major.minor pair, only the latest patch is supported at any given time.
For example, if Astronomer Software v0.26 were a stable version first released in October 2021:
v0.26.4), it would not affect the maintenance duration. Maintenance for v0.26 would still end in April 2022.If you contact Astronomer support about an issue you are experiencing while running an unmaintained version, our team will invite you to upgrade as an initial mitigation step.
Maintenance is discontinued the last day of the month for a given version. For example, if a version of Astronomer Software were supported between January - June of a given year, that version would be maintained by Astronomer until the last day of June.
If a major stability bug is identified by our team, a fix will be backported to all LTS versions and only the latest stable version. For users on a stable version that is not latest, our team will recommend that you upgrade. Major issues in this category may result in significant delays in task scheduling as well as potential data loss.
If a major security issue is identified, a fix will be backported and made available as a new patch version for all supported stable and LTS releases. Major issues in this category are classified by a combination of impact and exploitability.
In rare instances, the Astronomer team can make an exception and backport a bug or security fix to a release that is beyond the commitment stated above. To submit a request for consideration, submit a support ticket.
The following tables contain the exact lifecycle for each published version of Astronomer Software. These timelines are based on the LTS and stable release channel maintenance policies.