Versioning, Compatibility and Deprecation Policy

This page states how ArcadeDB releases are numbered, what stays compatible from one release to the next, and how a public interface is deprecated before it is removed. For the list of changes that need action when you move to a given release, see Breaking changes.

Version numbers

ArcadeDB uses calendar versioning in the format YY.M.S:

Part Meaning

YY

Two-digit year of the release (26 = 2026).

M

Month of the release (10 = October).

S

Serial number within that month. 1 is the monthly feature release; 2, 3, …​ are fix releases on the same line.

For example, 26.10.1 is the feature release of October 2026 and 26.10.2 is the first fix release on top of it. A new feature release ships every month.

On-disk compatibility

  • Upgrade: a newer release opens a database created by any older release and migrates it to the newer on-disk format automatically, the first time it opens it. No export or import is needed. See Upgrade ArcadeDB.

  • Serial releases: databases move up and down freely between serial releases of the same year and month (for example between 26.10.1 and 26.10.3), with 100% on-disk compatibility.

  • Downgrade across months: moving a database to an older monthly line is not guaranteed. Export the database with the newer release and import it with the older one. See Downgrade ArcadeDB.

  • HA clusters: a cluster is upgraded node by node without a service outage. Any release-specific constraint on mixing versions or rolling back a node is listed in the upgrade guide (see HA cluster upgrade and Downgrading a node of an HA cluster).

Public interfaces covered

The compatibility and deprecation rules below apply to these public interfaces:

  • The HTTP API under /api/v1. Within v1, changes are additive: new endpoints, new optional parameters and new response fields. Removing or renaming an endpoint, a parameter or a response field follows the deprecation process. An incompatible redesign would ship under a new version prefix, alongside v1.

  • The public Java API (com.arcadedb.database, com.arcadedb.graph, com.arcadedb.schema, com.arcadedb.query, com.arcadedb.remote and the server plugin API).

  • The query languages: SQL, openCypher, Gremlin, GraphQL, the MongoDB query language and the Redis commands, including their built-in functions and procedures.

  • The wire protocols (PostgreSQL, Neo4j Bolt, MongoDB, Redis, gRPC). These follow the external protocol specification they implement; support for a protocol version is not removed without deprecation.

  • Configuration settings (arcadedb.*) and their documented defaults.

Internal classes, undocumented behavior, log message text and the on-disk file layout are not public interfaces.

Deprecation process

When a public interface is going to be removed or changed incompatibly:

  1. The deprecation is announced in the release notes of the release that introduces it, together with the replacement to use.

  2. The interface is marked deprecated in this documentation and, for the Java API, with @Deprecated and a pointer to the replacement in its Javadoc. A deprecated setting keeps being accepted.

  3. The deprecated interface keeps working for at least 6 months, that is at least six monthly feature releases after the one that announced the deprecation.

  4. The removal is listed under Breaking changes for the release that performs it.

Exceptions: security and correctness fixes

A fix for a security vulnerability, a data-integrity problem, or a result that does not conform to the specification of a query language (for example a Cypher query returning a different answer than the openCypher specification requires) can change behavior without a deprecation period. Every such change that can require action is listed under Breaking changes for the release that ships it, with what changed and what to do. Security fixes are also published as GitHub security advisories.

Which releases receive fixes

Fixes ship as serial releases (YY.M.2, YY.M.3, …​) on the current monthly line and are included in the next monthly feature release. Customers with an ArcadeDB commercial support subscription can request backports to an older monthly line, according to the terms of their subscription.

License commitment

ArcadeDB is and will always be licensed under the Apache License 2.0, as stated in the project’s governance and license guarantee. Every release made under Apache 2.0 stays available under Apache 2.0.