API Stability and Deprecation Policy

This document covers API stability and the deprecation policy for Sigstore APIs and client libraries.

What does this cover?

The deprecation policy encompasses:

What are the different API stability levels?

There are three levels of stability and support:

  • Experimental
    • Features may be shipped with bugs
    • Feature is not yet recommended for production use
  • Beta
    • Features will be available for the next few releases
  • Generally Available
    • The feature will be available and supported

What is the deprecation policy at each level?

Experimental: Features can be changed or deprecated without notice

Beta: Backwards incompatible changes require at least 2 months notice

Generally Available: Deprecating features requires at least 6 months notice

Note: These guidelines will be followed on a best-effort basis. Since Sigstore is a security project, maintainers reserve the right to break things faster if necessary to address a security issue.

A list of features and associated levels will be available in each repository under FEATURES.md. A deprecation table will be available in each repository under DEPRECATIONS.md.

Edit this page on GitHub
← Threat Model
Contributing →