electronjs.org-new/blog/electron-2-semantic-boogaloo.md

---
title: Electron 2.0 and Beyond - Semantic Versioning
date: 2017-12-06T00:00:00.000Z
authors:
  name: groundwater
  url: 'https://github.com/groundwater'
  image_url: 'https://github.com/groundwater.png?size=96'
slug: electron-2-semantic-boogaloo
tags: [release]
---

A new major version of Electron is in the works, and with it some changes to our versioning strategy. As of version 2.0.0, Electron will strictly adhere to Semantic Versioning.

---

This change means you'll see the major version bump more often, and it will usually be a major update to Chromium. Patch releases will also be more stable, as they will now only contain bug fixes with no new features.

**Major Version Increments**

- Chromium version updates
- Node.js major version updates
- Electron breaking API changes

**Minor Version Increments**

- Node.js minor version updates
- Electron non-breaking API changes

**Patch Version Increments**

- Node.js patch version updates
- fix-related chromium patches
- Electron bug fixes

Because Electron's semver ranges will now be more meaningful, we recommend
installing Electron using npm's default `--save-dev` flag, which will prefix
your version with `^`, keeping you safely up to date with minor and patch
updates:

```sh
npm install --save-dev electron
```

For developers interested only in bug fixes, you should use the tilde semver prefix e.g. `~2.0.0`, which which will never introduce new features, only fixes to improve stability.

For more details, see [electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/electron-versioning](https://electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/electron-versioning).