🚀 Release process
Let's see how Telegram Bot SDK handles versioning, releases and breaking changes.
This topic is particularly important for large chatbots that may have difficulties to upgrade.
Semantic versioning
Telegram Bot SDK versioning is based on the major.minor.patch scheme and respects Semantic Versioning.
Respecting Semantic Versioning is important for multiple reasons:
- It guarantees simple minor version upgrades, as long as you only use the public API
- A new major version is an opportunity to thoroughly document breaking changes
- A new major/minor version is an opportunity to communicate new features through a blog post
Major version numbers are not sacred, but we still group breaking changes together and avoid releasing major versions too often.
Major versions
The major version number is incremented on every breaking change.
Whenever a new major version is released, we publish:
- a blog post with feature highlights, major bug fixes, breaking changes, and upgrade instructions.
- an exhaustive changelog entry
Read our public API surface section to clearly understand what we consider as a breaking change.
Minor versions
The minor version number is incremented on every significant retro-compatible change.
Whenever a new minor version is released, we publish:
- a blog post with a list of feature highlights and major bug fixes
- an exhaustive changelog entry
If you only use our public API surface, you should be able to upgrade in no time!
Patch versions
The patch version number is incremented on bugfixes releases.
Whenever a new patch version is released, we publish:
- an exhaustive changelog entry
Versions
The Telegram Bot SDK team is usually working on 2 major versions at the same time:
- Telegram Bot SDK : the stable version, on the
mainbranch - Telegram Bot SDK : the next version, on the
developbranch
Stable version
The stable version is recommended for most Telegram Bot SDK users.
After a new stable version has been released, the former stable version will continue to receive support only for major security issues for 3 months. Otherwise, all features will be frozen and non-critical bugs will not be fixed.
It is recommended to upgrade within that time frame to the new stable version.
Next version
The next version is the version the Telegram Bot SDK team is currently working on.
The branch is the default target branch for all pull requests, including core team and external contributions.
This version is recommended for early adopters that want to use the latest Telegram Bot SDK features as soon as possible. It is also a good way to help us by reporting bugs and giving some feedback.
There are 2 ways to use the next version:
- with an
alpha,betaorrcpre-release - with a canary release for the very latest features
The next version passes all our automated tests and is used by the Telegram Bot SDK team itself. It is relatively safe: don't be afraid to give it a try.
Breaking changes can happen on the next version: detailed upgrade instructions are available in the changelog and pull requests.
At the beta and rc (release candidate) phases, we avoid introducing major breaking changes.
Public API surface
Telegram Bot SDK commits to respecting Semantic Versioning. This means that whenever changes occur in Telegram Bot SDK public APIs and break backward compatibility, we will increment the major version number.
Telegram Bot SDK guarantees public API retro-compatibility across minor versions. Unless you use internal APIs, minor version upgrades should be easy.
We will outline what accounts as the public API surface.
Core public API
✅ Our public API includes:
- Telegram Bot SDK config
- Telegram Bot SDK public methods
- Telegram Bot APIs changes
- Telegram Bot SDK CLI
- Telegram Bot SDK Addon's public methods.
Any documented API is considered public (and will be stable); any undocumented API is considered internal.
An API being "stable" means if you increment the patch or minor version of your Telegram Bot SDK installation without any other change, updating through composer update should not throw an error.