API Maturity

The use of API groups and different versions allows for development to advance without changes to an existing group of APIs. This allows for easier growth and separation of work among separate teams. While there is an attempt to maintain some consistency between API and software versions, they are only indirectly linked.

The use of JSON and Google's Protobuf serialization scheme will follow the same release guidelines.

Alpha

An Alpha level release, noted with alpha in the names, may be buggy and is disabled by default. Features could change or disappear at any time, and backward compatibility is not guaranteed. Only use these features on a test cluster which is often rebuilt.

Beta

The Beta levels, found with beta in the names, has more well-tested code and is enabled by default. It also ensures that, as changes move forward, they will be tested for backwards compatibility between versions. It has not been adopted and tested enough to be called stable. You can expect some bugs and issues.

Stable

Use of the Stable version, denoted by only an integer which may be preceded by the letter v, is for stable APIs. At the moment, v1 is the only stable version.