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Release Process

This document outlines the process for releasing a new version of Cosmos SDK, which involves major release and patch releases as well as maintenance for the major release.

Note, the Cosmos SDK went directly from v0.47 to v0.50 and skipped the v0.48 and v0.49 versions.

Major Release Procedure

A major release is an increment of the first number (eg: v1.2 → v2.0.0) or the point number (eg: v1.1.0 → v1.2.0, also called point release). Each major release opens a stable release series and receives updates outlined in the Major Release Maintenance_section.

Before making a new major release we do beta and release candidate releases. For example, for release 1.0.0:

v1.0.0-beta1 → v1.0.0-beta2 → ... → v1.0.0-rc1 → v1.0.0-rc2 → ... → v1.0.0
  • Release a first beta version on the main branch and freeze main from receiving any new features. After beta is released, we focus on releasing the release candidate:
    • finish audits and reviews
    • kick off a large round of simulation testing (e.g. 400 seeds for 2k blocks)
    • perform functional tests
    • add more tests
    • release new beta version as the bugs are discovered and fixed.
  • After the team feels that the main works fine we create a release/vY branch (going forward known as release branch), where Y is the version number, with the patch part substituted to x (eg: 0.42.x, 1.0.x). Ensure the release branch is protected so that pushes against the release branch are permitted only by the release manager or release coordinator.
    • PRs targeting this branch can be merged only when exceptional circumstances arise
    • update the GitHub mergify integration by adding instructions for automatically backporting commits from main to the release/vY using the backport/Y label.
  • In the release branch prepare a new version section in the CHANGELOG.md
    • All links must point to their respective pull request.
    • The CHANGELOG.md must contain only the changes of that specific released version. All other changelog entries must be deleted and linked to the main branch changelog (example).
    • Create release notes, in RELEASE_NOTES.md, highlighting the new features and changes in the version. This is needed so the bot knows which entries to add to the release page on GitHub.
    • Additionally verify that the UPGRADING.md file is up to date and contains all the necessary information for upgrading to the new version.
  • Remove GitHub workflows that should not be in the release branch
    • test.yml: All standalone go module tests should be removed (expect ./simapp, and ./tests, SDK and modules tests).
      • These packages are tracked and tested directly on main.
    • build.yml: Only the SDK and SimApp need to be built on release branches.
      • Tooling is tracked and tested directly on main.
      • This does not apply for tooling depending on the SDK (e.g. confix)
    • Update Dockerfile to not use latest go.mod and go.sum files.
  • Remove all other components that do not depend on the SDK from the release branch (See Go Monorepo Branching Strategy).
    • Delete log, core, errors, ... packages
    • Update all the remaining go.mod files to use the latest released versions (the ones tagged from main) or latest commits from the main branch.
  • Create a new annotated git tag for a release candidate (eg: git tag -a v1.1.0-rc1) in the release branch.
    • from this point we unfreeze main.
    • the SDK teams collaborate and do their best to run testnets in order to validate the release.
    • when bugs are found, create a PR for main, and backport fixes to the release branch.
    • create new release candidate tags after bugs are fixed.
  • After the team feels the release branch is stable and everything works, create a full release:
    • update CHANGELOG.md.
    • run gofumpt -w -l . to format the code.
    • create a new annotated git tag (eg git -a v1.1.0) in the release branch.
    • Create a GitHub release.

See the Releases document for more information on the versioning scheme.

Patch Release Procedure

A patch release is an increment of the patch number (eg: v1.2.0 → v1.2.1).

Patch release must not break API nor consensus.

Updates to the release branch should come from main by backporting PRs (usually done by automatic cherry pick followed by a PRs to the release branch). The backports must be marked using backport/Y label in PR for main. It is the PR author's responsibility to fix merge conflicts, update changelog entries, and ensure CI passes. If a PR originates from an external contributor, a core team member assumes responsibility to perform this process instead of the original author. Lastly, it is core team's responsibility to ensure that the PR meets all the SRU criteria.

Point Release must follow the Stable Release Policy.

After the release branch has all commits required for the next patch release:

  • Update CHANGELOG.md and RELEASE_NOTES.md (if applicable).
  • Create a new annotated git tag (eg git -a v1.1.0) in the release branch.
    • If the release is a submodule update, first go to the submodule folder and name the tag prepending the path to the version: cd core && git -a core/v1.1.0 or cd tools/cosmovisor && git -a tools/cosmovisor/v1.4.0
  • Create a GitHub release (if applicable).

Major Release Maintenance

Major Release series continue to receive bug fixes (released as a Patch Release) until they reach End Of Life. Major Release series is maintained in compliance with the Stable Release Policy as described in this document.

Only the following major release series have a stable release status:

  • 0.47 is the previous major release and is supported until the release of 0.52.0. A fairly strict bugfix-only rule applies to pull requests that are requested to be included into a not latest stable point-release.
  • 0.50 is the last major release and is supported until the release of 0.54.0.

The SDK team maintains the last two major releases, any other major release is considered to have reached end of life. The SDK team will not backport any bug fixes to releases that are not supported. Widely-used (decided at SDK team's discretion) unsupported releases are considered to be in a security maintenance mode. The SDK team will backport security fixes to these releases.

Stable Release Policy

Patch Releases

Once a Cosmos-SDK release has been completed and published, updates for it are released under certain circumstances and must follow the Patch Release Procedure.

Rationale

Unlike in-development main branch snapshots, Cosmos SDK releases are subject to much wider adoption, and by a significantly different demographic of users. During development, changes in the main branch affect SDK users, application developers, early adopters, and other advanced users that elect to use unstable experimental software at their own risk.

Conversely, users of a stable release expect a high degree of stability. They build their applications on it, and the problems they experience with it could be potentially highly disruptive to their projects.

Stable release updates are recommended to the vast majority of developers, and so it is crucial to treat them with great caution. Hence, when updates are proposed, they must be accompanied by a strong rationale and present a low risk of regressions, i.e. even one-line changes could cause unexpected regressions due to side effects or poorly tested code. We never assume that any change, no matter how little or non-intrusive, is completely exempt of regression risks.

Therefore, the requirements for stable changes are different than those that are candidates to be merged in the main branch. When preparing future major releases, our aim is to design the most elegant, user-friendly and maintainable SDK possible which often entails fundamental changes to the SDK's architecture design, rearranging and/or renaming packages as well as reducing code duplication so that we maintain common functions and data structures in one place rather than leaving them scattered all over the code base. However, once a release is published, the priority is to minimize the risk caused by changes that are not strictly required to fix qualifying bugs; this tends to be correlated with minimizing the size of such changes. As such, the same bug may need to be fixed in different ways in stable releases and main branch.

Migrations

See the SDK's policy on migrations here.

What qualifies as a Stable Release Update (SRU)

  • High-impact bugs
    • Bugs that may directly cause a security vulnerability.
    • Severe regressions from a Cosmos-SDK's previous release. This includes all sort of issues that may cause the core packages or the x/ modules unusable.
    • Bugs that may cause loss of user's data.
  • Other safe cases:
    • Bugs which don't fit in the aforementioned categories for which an obvious safe patch is known.
    • Relatively small yet strictly non-breaking features with strong support from the community.
    • Relatively small yet strictly non-breaking changes that introduce forward-compatible client features to smoothen the migration to successive releases.
    • Relatively small yet strictly non-breaking CLI improvements.

What does not qualify as SRU

  • State machine changes.
  • Breaking changes in Protobuf definitions, as specified in ADR-044.
  • Changes that introduce API breakages (e.g. public functions and interfaces removal/renaming).
  • Client-breaking changes in gRPC and HTTP request and response types.
  • CLI-breaking changes.
  • Cosmetic fixes, such as formatting or linter warning fixes.

What pull requests will be included in stable point-releases

Pull requests that fix bugs and add features that fall in the following categories do not require a Stable Release Exception to be granted to be included in a stable point-release:

  • Severe regressions.
  • Bugs that may cause client applications to be largely unusable.
  • Bugs that may cause state corruption or data loss.
  • Bugs that may directly or indirectly cause a security vulnerability.
  • Non-breaking features that are strongly requested by the community.
  • Non-breaking CLI improvements that are strongly requested by the community.

What pull requests will NOT be automatically included in stable point-releases

As rule of thumb, the following changes will NOT be automatically accepted into stable point-releases:

  • State machine changes.
  • Protobug-breaking changes, as specified in ADR-044.
  • Client-breaking changes, i.e. changes that prevent gRPC, HTTP and RPC clients to continue interacting with the node without any change.
  • API-breaking changes, i.e. changes that prevent client applications to build without modifications to the client application's source code.
  • CLI-breaking changes, i.e. changes that require usage changes for CLI users.

In some circumstances, PRs that don't meet the aforementioned criteria might be raised and asked to be granted a Stable Release Exception.

Stable Release Exception - Procedure

  1. Check that the bug is either fixed or not reproducible in main. It is, in general, not appropriate to release bug fixes for stable releases without first testing them in main. Please apply the label v0.43 to the issue.

  2. Add a comment to the issue and ensure it contains the following information (see the bug template below):

    • [Impact] An explanation of the bug on users and justification for backporting the fix to the stable release.
    • A [Test Case] section containing detailed instructions on how to reproduce the bug.
    • A [Regression Potential] section with a clear assessment on how regressions are most likely to manifest as a result of the pull request that aims to fix the bug in the target stable release.

  3. Stable Release Managers will review and discuss the PR. Once consensus surrounding the rationale has been reached and the technical review has successfully concluded, the pull request will be merged in the respective point-release target branch (e.g. release/v0.43.x) and the PR included in the point-release's respective milestone (e.g. v0.43.5).

Stable Release Exception - Bug template

#### Impact

Brief explanation of the effects of the bug on users and a justification for backporting the fix to the stable release.

#### Test Case

Detailed instructions on how to reproduce the bug on Stargate's most recently published point-release.

#### Regression Potential

Explanation of how regressions might manifest - even if it's unlikely.
It is assumed that stable release fixes are well-tested and they come with a low risk of regressions.
It's crucial to make the effort of thinking about what could happen in case a regression emerges.

Stable Release Managers

The Stable Release Managers evaluate and approve or reject updates and backports to Cosmos SDK Stable Release series, according to the stable release policy and release procedure. Decisions are made by consensus.

Their responsibilities include:

  • Driving the Stable Release Exception process.
  • Approving/rejecting proposed changes to a stable release series.
  • Executing the release process of stable point-releases in compliance with the Point Release Procedure.

Currently residing Stable Release Managers:

Cosmos SDK Modules Tagging Strategy

The Cosmos SDK repository is a mono-repo where its Go modules have a different release process and cadence than the Cosmos SDK itself. There are two types of modules:

  1. Modules that import the Cosmos SDK and depend on a specific version of it.
    • Modules to be imported in an app (e.g x/ modules).
    • Modules that are not imported into an app and are a standalone module (e.g. cosmovisor).
  2. Modules that do not depend on the Cosmos SDK.

The same changelog procedure applies to all modules in the Cosmos SDK repository, and must be up-to-date with the latest changes before tagging a module version. Note: The Cosmos SDK team is in an active process of limiting Go modules that depend on the Cosmos SDK.

Modules that depend on the Cosmos SDK

The Cosmos SDK team should strive to release modules that depend on the Cosmos SDK at the same time or soon after a major version Cosmos SDK itself. Those modules can be considered as part of the Cosmos SDK, but features and improvements are released at a different cadence.

  • When a module is supposed to be used in an app (e.g x/ modules), due to the dependency on the SDK, tagging a new version of a module must be done from a Cosmos SDK release branch. A compatibility matrix must be provided in the README.md of that module with the corresponding versions.
  • Modules that import the SDK but do not need to be imported in an app (e.g. cosmovisor) must be released from the main branch and follow the process defined below.

Modules that do not depend on the Cosmos SDK

Modules that do not depend on the Cosmos SDK can be released at any time from the main branch of the Cosmos SDK repository.

Go Monorepo Branching Strategy

The Cosmos SDK uses a monorepo structure with multiple Go modules. Some components are tagged from the main branch, while others are tagged from release branches, as described above.

Here's the strategy for managing this structure:

All modules that do not depend on the Cosmos SDK and tagged from main in a release branch must be removed from the release branch.

Rationale

This strategy provides several benefits:

  1. Clean separation: Release branches only contain components that are actually released from those branches.
  2. Avoid confusion: Prevents having outdated versions of standalone go modules in release branches.
  3. Accurate representation: The release branch accurately represents what's being released from that branch.
  4. Consistency: Aligns with the tagging strategy - components tagged from main aren't in release branches, and vice versa.

Additional Considerations

  • When backporting changes, be aware that standalone go modules changes will not be present in release branches.
  • To reference the full state of the SDK at the time of branching, consider creating a separate tag on main at the point where each release branch is created.
  • Ensure thorough testing of the release branch structure to avoid any integration issues.

This branching strategy helps maintain a clear separation between components tagged from main and those tagged from release branches, while ensuring that release branches accurately represent the state of components that depend on the SDK.