17. Protocol Versioning

Status: draft.

17.1 Version

The protocol version is a string, currently "1.0". Every authority declaration, request, decision, evidence entry and bundle carries it.

17.2 Rules

• A component MUST reject a version it does not support (UNSUPPORTED_PROTOCOL_VERSION).
• A change that alters the meaning of an existing field, a digest input, a signature input or a reason code is a new major version.
• A compatible addition (a new optional reason code, a new read-only endpoint) is a minor version.
• Domain separators carry their own version (DIP-*-V1). A new separator version does not change the protocol version by itself.

17.3 Current state

Only 1.0 exists. No mechanism for negotiating between versions is defined yet.

17.4 Software versions

Software releases follow semantic versioning from 0.0.0 and are tagged vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. Packages are private and not published to a registry. A release notes entry in CHANGELOG.md is required for each tag.