Semantic Version Bumper

Semantic Versioning (semver) is a versioning scheme in the format MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. MAJOR is incremented for breaking (incompatible) API changes. MINOR is incremented for new backward-compatible features. PATCH is incremented for backward-compatible bug fixes. Pre-release identifiers (e.g. 1.0.0-alpha.1) and build metadata (e.g. 1.0.0+build.42) are optional extensions.

Bump MAJOR when you introduce a breaking change — meaning existing code that depends on your package may break after upgrading. Examples: removing a public function, changing a function signature in an incompatible way, changing authentication format. For public APIs, a major bump communicates to users that they need to take care when upgrading.

Bump MINOR when you add new functionality that is backward-compatible. Existing code should continue to work after a minor bump. Examples: adding a new optional parameter, adding a new public method, adding a new endpoint. When MINOR is bumped, PATCH resets to 0.

These are conventions within the semver pre-release field. alpha = early testing, may be unstable. beta = feature-complete, stabilization phase. rc (release candidate) = potentially final version pending last verification. They carry no semantic meaning within the semver spec itself — but the dot-separated numeric suffix (e.g. alpha.1, alpha.2) does affect precedence: alpha.1 < alpha.2 < beta.1 < rc.1 < 1.0.0.

No. Build metadata (the +suffix) is explicitly ignored when determining version precedence according to the semver spec. 1.0.0+build.1 and 1.0.0+build.2 have identical precedence — they are treated as the same version for dependency resolution purposes. Build metadata is typically used for CI build numbers or git SHA references.

Bumping MAJOR, MINOR, or PATCH clears the pre-release identifier and build metadata. For example, bumping PATCH on 1.2.3-beta.4 produces 1.2.4 (not 1.2.4-beta.4). If you are in a pre-release cycle and want to promote to a release, bump the appropriate level without adding a new pre-release tag.