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| title | weight | slug |
|---|---|---|
| Adding Release Notes | 12 | release-notes |
On the kubernetes/kubernetes repository, release notes are required for any pull request with user-visible changes, such as bug fixes, feature additions, and output format changes. Release notes are one of the most important reference points for users about to install or upgrade to a particular release of Kubernetes.
Does my pull request need a release note?
Any user-visible or operator-visible change qualifies for a release note. This could be a:
- CLI change
- API change
- UI change
- configuration schema change
- behavioral change
- change in non-functional attributes such as efficiency or availability, availability of a new platform
- a warning about a deprecation
- fix of a previous Known Issue
- fix of a vulnerability (CVE)
No release notes are required for changes to:
- tests
- build infrastructure
- fixes of bugs which have not been released
Contents of a Release Note
A release note needs a clear, concise description of the change. This includes:
- an indicator if the pull request Added, Changed, Fixed, Removed, Deprecated functionality or changed enhancement/feature maturity (alpha, beta, stable/GA)
- an indicator if there is user Action required
- the name of the affected API or configuration fields, CLI commands/flags or enhancement/feature
- a link to relevant user documentation about the enhancement/feature
Applying a Release Note
To meet this requirement, do one of the following:
- Add notes in the release notes block, or
- Update the release note label
If you don't add release notes in the pull request template, the do-not-merge/release-note-label-needed label is added to your pull request automatically after you create it. There are a few ways to update it.
To add a release-note section to the pull request description:
For pull requests with a release note:
```release-note
Your release note here
```
For pull requests that require additional action from users switching to the new release, include the string "action required" (case insensitive) in the release note:
```release-note
action required: your release note here
```
For pull requests that don't need to be mentioned at release time, use the /release-note-none Prow command to add the release-note-none label to the PR. You can also write the string "NONE" as a release note in your PR description:
```release-note
NONE
```
To see how to format your release notes, view the kubernetes/kubernetes pull request template for a brief example. Pull Request titles and body comments can be modified at any time prior to the release to make them friendly for release notes.
Release notes apply to pull requests on the master branch. For patch release branches the automated cherry-pick pull requests process (see the cherry-pick instructions) should be followed. That automation will pull release notes from the master branch PR from which the cherry-pick originated. On a rare occasion a pull request on a patch release branch is not a cherry-pick, but rather is targeted directly to the non-master branch and in this case, a release-note-* label is required for that non-master pull request.
Reviewing Release Notes
Reviewing the release notes of a pull request should be a dedicated step in the overall review process. It is necessary to rely on the same metrics as other reviewers to be able to distinguish release notes which might need to be rephrased.
As a guideline, a release notes entry needs to be rephrased if one of the following cases apply:
- The release note does not communicate the full purpose of the change.
- The release note has no impact on any user.
- The release note is grammatically incorrect.
In any other case the release note should be fine.