How does the HTMX release versioning and cycles work?

[alirezaalavi87]

Hi.

So I'm confused by the releases of HTMX.
In github releases, we have v4 and then v2.0.9

• How does one jump from v2 to v4? Is HTMX not using semver?
• The changelog and https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/htmx.org/dist/ have version 2.0.10 but it isn't in github releases?

What should we expect out of a major version release? where should we get new versions from? why are there inconsistencies?

Thank you

[Iamrodos]

• How does one jump from v2 to v4? Is HTMX not using semver?

Some context may help. See https://htmx.org/essays/the-fetchening/

[alirezaalavi87]

Ah I see. Thanks.

[MILLERMARRU]

Nothing broken in your understanding, htmx genuinely has two release tracks running in parallel right now, that's not a semver violation, it's by design during the v4 beta.

htmx 2.x is the stable line, still the latest tag on npm (2.0.10 as of writing) and still getting patch releases. htmx 4 is a separate, actively developed pre-release track, currently at 4.0.0-beta6, published under the next npm dist-tag, not latest. So you're not meant to "jump" from v2 to v4 yet, v2 keeps getting maintenance while v4 is beta-tested in parallel, and it'll presumably become latest once it's actually stable. The essay linked above (the fetchening) explains the reasoning for the v4 rewrite itself, but the versioning split you're seeing is just standard pre-1.0-successor practice, the same way a lot of projects run a next/canary tag alongside latest while a rewrite matures.

On the missing 2.0.10 (and 2.0.8) from the Releases page specifically, I checked, the git tags v2.0.8 and v2.0.10 do exist in the repo and match what's published on npm and jsDelivr, they're just not backed by a written GitHub Release entry with release notes. That happens when a patch gets tagged and published straight to npm/CDN without a Release being drafted for it on GitHub afterward, it's a gap in the release process, not evidence of a hidden or different version. git tag -l | grep 2.0.10 (or the tags API) shows it even though /releases doesn't.

[alirezaalavi87]

Thank you for your explanation