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Release Process And Cadence

docs/developer-guide/release-process-and-cadence.md

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Release Process And Cadence

Release Cycle

Schedule

These are the upcoming releases dates:

ReleaseRelease Candidate 1General AvailabilityRelease ChampionRelease ApproverChecklist
v3.6Tuesday, Sep. 15, 2026Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026Eugene Doudine
v3.5Tuesday, Jun. 16, 2026Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026Patroklos PapapetrouRegina Voloshinchecklist
v3.4Monday, Mar. 16, 2026Tuesday, May. 5, 2026Codey JenkinsRegina Voloshinchecklist
v3.3Monday, Dec. 15, 2025Monday, Feb. 2, 2026Peter JiangRegina Voloshinchecklist
v3.2Monday, Sep. 15, 2025Monday, Nov. 3, 2025Nitish KumarMichael Crenshawchecklist
v3.1Monday, Jun. 16, 2025Monday, Aug. 4, 2025Christian HernandezAlexandre Gaudreaultchecklist
v3.0Monday, Mar. 17, 2025Tuesday, May 6, 2025Regina VoloshinRegina Voloshinchecklist
v2.14Monday, Dec. 16, 2024Monday, Feb. 3, 2025Ryan UmsteadPavel Kostohryschecklist
v2.13Monday, Sep. 16, 2024Monday, Nov. 4, 2024Regina VoloshinPavel Kostohryschecklist
v2.12Monday, Jun. 17, 2024Monday, Aug. 5, 2024Ishita SequeiraPavel Kostohryschecklist
v2.11Friday, Apr. 5, 2024Monday, May 6, 2024Pavel KostohrysPavel Kostohryschecklist
v2.10Monday, Dec. 18, 2023Monday, Feb. 5, 2024Katie Lamkinchecklist
v2.9Monday, Sep. 18, 2023Monday, Nov. 6, 2023Leonardo AlmeidaLeonardo Almeidachecklist
v2.8Monday, Jun. 26, 2023Monday, Aug. 7, 2023Keith ChongKeith Chongchecklist
v2.7Monday, Mar. 20, 2023Monday, May 1, 2023Pavel KostohrysPavel Kostohryschecklist
v2.6Monday, Dec. 19, 2022Monday, Feb. 6, 2023William TamWilliam Tamchecklist

Actual release dates might differ from the plan by a few days.

Release Process

Minor Releases (e.g. 2.x.0)

A minor Argo CD release occurs four times a year, once every three months. Each General Availability (GA) release is preceded by several Release Candidates (RCs). The first RC is released seven weeks before the scheduled GA date. This effectively means that there is a seven-week feature freeze.

These are the approximate release dates:

  • The first Tuesday of February
  • The first Tuesday of May
  • The first Tuesday of August
  • The first Tuesday of November

Dates may be shifted slightly to accommodate holidays. Those shifts should be minimal.

Patch Releases (e.g. 2.5.x)

Argo CD patch releases occur on an as-needed basis. Only the three most recent minor versions are eligible for patch releases. Versions older than the three most recent minor versions are considered EOL and will not receive bug fixes or security updates.

Release Champion

To help manage all the steps involved in a release, we will have a Release Champion. The Release Champion will be responsible for a checklist of items for their release. The checklist is an issue template in the Argo CD repository.

The Release Champion can be anyone in the Argo CD community. Some tasks (like cherry-picking bug fixes and cutting releases) require Approver membership. The Release Champion can delegate tasks when necessary and will be responsible for coordinating with the Approver.

Feature Acceptance Criteria

To be eligible for inclusion in a minor release, a new feature must meet the following criteria before the release’s RC date.

If it is a large feature that involves significant design decisions, that feature must be described in a Proposal, and that Proposal must be reviewed and merged.

The feature PR must include:

  • Tests (passing)
  • Documentation
  • If necessary, a note in the Upgrading docs for the planned minor release
  • The PR must be reviewed, approved, and merged by an Approver.

If these criteria are not met by the RC date, the feature will be ineligible for inclusion in the RC series or GA for that minor release. It will have to wait for the next minor release.

Security Patch Policy

CVEs in Argo CD code will be patched for all supported versions. Read more about supported versions in the security policy for Argo CD.

Dependencies Lifecycle Policy

Dependencies are evaluated before being introduced to ensure they:

  1. are actively maintained

  2. are maintained by trustworthy maintainers

These evaluations vary from dependency to dependencies.

Dependencies are also scheduled for removal if the project has been deprecated or if the project is no longer maintained.

CVEs in dependencies will be patched for all supported versions if the CVE is applicable and is assessed by Snyk to be of high or critical severity. Automation generates a new Snyk scan weekly.

Upgrading Helm and Kustomize

When starting to work on a new Argo CD minor release, the bundled Helm and Kustomize need to be upgraded to the latest available version. Please note that sometimes an upgrade to those versions results in breaking changes that need to be addressed on Argo CD side and documented in this Argo CD version upgrade instructions.

Upgrading Go version that Argo CD uses

When starting to work on a new Argo CD minor release, the Go version needs to be upgraded to the latest available version, in the following places:

All the above affect the Go version that Argo CD is built with and that is shipped in the Argo CD image. Also, those are the relevant places to change when we need to cherry-pick bumps of Go version to the previous Argo CD releases, for security reasons.

Please note that Go version in go.mod files should only be bumped if we want to use new language features in this Go version. If using the new language features is not required at this point in time, we should leave the go.mod version as is, even after bumping it in CI and in the Dockerfiles, in order to not force Argo CD library users to upgrade their Go versions upon upgrading Argo CD.