Documentation Versioning Model

Summary

Documentation versioning connects content to product release maturity without cloning the entire portal for every release. Versioned sets are introduced only when supported behavior materially diverges.

Audience

• Product, engineering, QA, DevOps, architecture, and documentation teams

Reference Content

Version concept	Documentation treatment
RC	Draft/review content may describe verified release-candidate behavior and explicitly label transitional gaps
GA	Public or audience-specific content must complete required GA review before publication
v1	First supported major contract or documentation baseline
v2	New major baseline when behavior or contracts cannot be described safely as a compatible update
Breaking change	Record affected nodes, replacement behavior, introduced/deprecated versions, and migration path
Migration	Provide prerequisites, sequencing, validation, rollback/recovery, and compatibility boundaries
Archived docs	Preserve historical context, version scope, replacement links, and route stability outside active navigation

Rules

• Use introduced_in and deprecated_in on pages or nodes with meaningful version boundaries.
• Do not infer versions from branch names, dates, or implementation comments.
• Keep one page for compatible changes; split/version only when readers need different instructions.
• A breaking change triggers dependency impact analysis and release, architecture, support, and security review as applicable.
• Archived documentation is immutable except for safety notices, corrected routing, or retention metadata.
• Migration documentation must not expose secrets or unsafe production commands.

Related Articles

• Review model
• Dependency model
• Documentation status model

See Also

• Release notes

Keywords

• Documentation versioning
• Breaking changes
• Migration guidance

Revision Information

• Status: Draft
• Last reviewed: 2026-07-15
• Review cycle: Quarterly