Release channels

How HyperFrames keeps alpha-only work out of stable releases.

HyperFrames publishes two release channels:

• Stable releases use versions like 0.4.24 and publish to the npm latest dist-tag.
• Prereleases use versions like 0.4.24-alpha.1 and publish to the npm dist-tag named by the prerelease suffix, such as alpha.

Branch policy

Use branch separation to decide what code is eligible for each release channel. Dist-tags only control npm install defaults; they do not remove code from a package.

• main is stable/releasable. Anything merged to main is eligible for latest.
• release/v* branches are for stable patch releases and hotfixes.
• next, alpha, beta, rc, canary, and prerelease/* branches are for prerelease integration.

If a feature should ship in alpha only, merge or retarget that PR to a prerelease branch instead of main.

Stable release

Stable releases must be reachable from origin/main or origin/release/v*.

bun run set-version 0.4.24
git push origin main --tags

For hotfixes, branch from the last stable tag, cherry-pick only the fix, publish the patch release, then merge or cherry-pick the same fix back into the prerelease branch.

Alpha release

Alpha releases must be reachable from a prerelease branch such as origin/next or origin/alpha.

git checkout next
bun run set-version 0.4.25-alpha.1
git push origin next
git push origin v0.4.25-alpha.1

Consumers can install alpha builds explicitly:

npm install hyperframes@alpha
npm install @hyperframes/core@alpha

CI guardrails

The publish workflow validates release channel boundaries before publishing:

• Stable versions must publish with latest.
• Prerelease versions must publish with the prerelease dist-tag, such as alpha.
• Stable tags must be reachable from main or release/v*.
• Prerelease tags must be reachable from a prerelease branch.
• Merged release/vX.Y.Z PRs publish stable releases only.

This prevents an alpha-only feature from being included in a stable hotfix by accident.