Modern QA2026Semantic Versioning — tiles
Log inJoin
44 / 57 · 17 Git & Version Control · Tagging and Releases← prev⊞ allnext →☰ Read as one page

6.4Semantic Versioning

Most projects use semantic versioning (SemVer): MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH

Component When to Increment Example
MAJOR Breaking changes (API incompatible) v2.0.0 to v3.0.0
MINOR New features (backward compatible) v2.3.0 to v2.4.0
PATCH Bug fixes (backward compatible) v2.4.0 to v2.4.1

Pre-release tags indicate versions that are not yet stable:

git tag -a v2.4.0-rc1 -m "Release candidate 1 for 2.4.0"
git tag -a v2.4.0-beta.1 -m "Beta 1 for 2.4.0"
git tag -a v2.4.0-alpha.3 -m "Alpha 3 for 2.4.0"

QA and Versioning

Version Stage QA Activity
Alpha Exploratory testing, feature-level tests
Beta Full regression, performance testing, cross-browser
Release Candidate Final regression, sign-off checklist, no new features
Release Smoke tests on production, monitoring