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Fluent Bit Maintenance Policy

MAINTENANCE.md

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Fluent Bit Maintenance Policy

This document outlines the maintenance strategy and version support for Fluent Bit.

Active Branches and Maintainers

BranchVersionStatusMaintainerNotes
masterv5.1.xStableEduardo SilvaCurrent stable release series. All new features and bug fixes land here first.
5.0v5.0.xMaintenance onlyEduardo Silva Hiroshi Hatake (@cosmo0920)Critical bug fixes, security fixes, and selected low-risk backports until November 30, 2026.

Maintenance Policy

Fluent Bit v5.1 is the current stable release series and is tracked in the master branch. The v5.0 branch is in maintenance mode and receives bug fixes, security updates, and selected low-risk backports until its End-of-Maintenance date. Older release lines are End-of-Life (EOL).

Accepted Changes for Maintenance Branches

  • ✅ Security patches (see SECURITY.md for security update timelines)
  • ✅ Critical bug fixes
  • ✅ Low-risk enhancements that unblock adoption (e.g., OpenTelemetry improvements, performance tuning)

⚠️ All changes must first be merged into master before being cherry-picked into maintenance branches by the maintainer.

Maintenance releases continue on an as-needed basis depending on urgency and impact.

v5.1 Stable Series

v5.1 is the current stable release series and is recommended for production use. New features and bug fixes land in master first.

v5.0 Maintenance

v5.0 is in maintenance mode and receives critical bug fixes, security updates, and selected low-risk backports until November 30, 2026 (as specified in SECURITY.md).

v4.2 End-of-Life

v4.2 reached End-of-Life (EOL) on July 30, 2026 and is no longer maintained.

v4.1 End-of-Life

v4.1 reached End-of-Life (EOL) on February 28, 2026 and is no longer maintained.

v4.0 End-of-Life

v4.0 reached End-of-Life (EOL) on December 23, 2025 and is no longer maintained. No further security patches or bug fixes will be provided for this version line.


How to Contribute to Maintained Versions

If you're submitting a fix or feature relevant to a stable or maintenance branch:

  • Open your PR against the master branch
  • For a v5.0 backport, add Target: v5.0 to the PR or issue and tag @edsiper or @cosmo0920

Note: v4.2 and earlier are End-of-Life and no longer accept backports. For security-related issues, follow the process outlined in SECURITY.md.