Skip to main content

Feature lifecycle

Feature stages​

A feature in Hub follows the same lifecycle as upstream Kubernetes.

An Alpha feature represents a brand new feature that's still under active development and has no commitment from the project to be completed. This means:

  • Disabled by default (behind a feature flag)
  • Might be buggy or have reduced performance
  • Support for the feature may be dropped at any time without notice
  • The API may change in incompatible ways in a later release without notice
  • Recommended for use only in short-lived testing clusters

A Beta feature represents a feature that has been promoted from Alpha, but is still under active development. The project has committed to completing the feature in some form. This means:

  • Usually enabled by default (can be disabled with a feature flag)
  • The feature is well tested and generally considered safe
  • Support for the feature isn't dropped, details and exact API may change
  • The schema and/or semantics may change in incompatible ways in later beta or stable release. Instructions are provided for migrating to the next version but may require deleting, editing or re-creating objects which may require downtime for applications relying on the feature.
  • Recommended for only non-business-critical uses because of incompatible changes.

A General Availability (GA) feature represents a stable feature. This means:

  • The feature is always enabled (and can't be disabled)
  • The corresponding feature flag has been removed
  • Stable versions of features appear in released software for many later versions

For a more detailed breakdown of reliability, upgradeability and completeness see the Kubernetes SIG Architecture document. Please note that Upbound doesn't commit to the same support guarantees and/or release cycles of upstream Kubernetes.

Release cycle​

Hub currently releases updates on a quarterly (13 week) cadence. Upbound maintains support the past 12 months of releases.