2f1aed98cc
### What this PR does / why we need it? [Doc] Update version policy to the latest. Signed-off-by: menogrey <1299267905@qq.com>
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Versioning Policy
Starting with vLLM 0.7.x, the vLLM Ascend Plugin (vllm-project/vllm-ascend) project follows the PEP 440 to publish matching with vLLM (vllm-project/vllm).
vLLM Ascend Plugin versions
Each vLLM Ascend release is versioned as v[major].[minor].[micro][rcN][.postN] (such as
v0.7.3rc1, v0.7.3, v0.7.3.post1)
- Final releases: Typically scheduled every three months, with careful alignment to the vLLM upstream release cycle and the Ascend software product roadmap.
- Pre releases: Typically issued on demand, labeled with rcN to indicate the Nth release candidate. They are intended to support early testing by users ahead of the final release.
- Post releases: Typically issued on demand to address minor errors in a final release. Different from PEP-440 post release note convention, these versions include actual bug fixes, as the final release version must strictly align with the vLLM final release format (
v[major].[minor].[micro]). Any post version must be published as a patch version of the final release.
For example:
v0.7.x: first final release to match the vLLMv0.7.xversion.v0.7.3rc1: first pre version of vLLM Ascend.v0.7.3.post1: post release for thev0.7.3release if it has some minor errors.
Release compatibility matrix
The table below is the release compatibility matrix for vLLM Ascend release.
| vLLM Ascend | vLLM | Python | Stable CANN | PyTorch/torch_npu | MindIE Turbo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v0.12.0rc1 | v0.12.0 | >= 3.10, < 3.12 | 8.3.RC2 | 2.8.0 / 2.8.0 | |
| v0.11.0rc3 | v0.11.0 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.3.RC2 | 2.7.1 / 2.7.1.post1 | |
| v0.11.0rc2 | v0.11.0 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.3.RC2 | 2.7.1 / 2.7.1 | |
| v0.11.0rc1 | v0.11.0 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.3.RC1 | 2.7.1 / 2.7.1 | |
| v0.11.0rc0 | v0.11.0rc3 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.2.RC1 | 2.7.1 / 2.7.1.dev20250724 | |
| v0.10.2rc1 | v0.10.2 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.2.RC1 | 2.7.1 / 2.7.1.dev20250724 | |
| v0.10.1rc1 | v0.10.1/v0.10.1.1 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.2.RC1 | 2.7.1 / 2.7.1.dev20250724 | |
| v0.10.0rc1 | v0.10.0 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.2.RC1 | 2.7.1 / 2.7.1.dev20250724 | |
| v0.9.2rc1 | v0.9.2 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.1.RC1 | 2.5.1 / 2.5.1.post1.dev20250619 | |
| v0.9.1 | v0.9.1 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.2.RC1 | 2.5.1 / 2.5.1.post1 | |
| v0.9.1rc3 | v0.9.1 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.2.RC1 | 2.5.1 / 2.5.1.post1 | |
| v0.9.1rc2 | v0.9.1 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.2.RC1 | 2.5.1 / 2.5.1.post1 | |
| v0.9.1rc1 | v0.9.1 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.1.RC1 | 2.5.1 / 2.5.1.post1.dev20250528 | |
| v0.9.0rc2 | v0.9.0 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.1.RC1 | 2.5.1 / 2.5.1 | |
| v0.9.0rc1 | v0.9.0 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.1.RC1 | 2.5.1 / 2.5.1 | |
| v0.8.5rc1 | v0.8.5.post1 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.1.RC1 | 2.5.1 / 2.5.1 | |
| v0.8.4rc2 | v0.8.4 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.0.0 | 2.5.1 / 2.5.1 | |
| v0.7.3.post1 | v0.7.3 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.1.RC1 | 2.5.1 / 2.5.1 | 2.0rc1 |
| v0.7.3 | v0.7.3 | >= 3.9, < 3.12 | 8.1.RC1 | 2.5.1 / 2.5.1 | 2.0rc1 |
Release cadence
Release window
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2025.12.13 | Release candidates, v0.12.0rc1 |
| 2025.12.03 | Release candidates, v0.11.0rc3 |
| 2025.11.21 | Release candidates, v0.11.0rc2 |
| 2025.11.10 | Release candidates, v0.11.0rc1 |
| 2025.09.30 | Release candidates, v0.11.0rc0 |
| 2025.09.16 | Release candidates, v0.10.2rc1 |
| 2025.09.04 | Release candidates, v0.10.1rc1 |
| 2025.09.03 | v0.9.1 Final release |
| 2025.08.22 | Release candidates, v0.9.1rc3 |
| 2025.08.07 | Release candidates, v0.10.0rc1 |
| 2025.08.04 | Release candidates, v0.9.1rc2 |
| 2025.07.11 | Release candidates, v0.9.2rc1 |
| 2025.06.22 | Release candidates, v0.9.1rc1 |
| 2025.06.10 | Release candidates, v0.9.0rc2 |
| 2025.06.09 | Release candidates, v0.9.0rc1 |
| 2025.05.29 | v0.7.x post release, v0.7.3.post1 |
| 2025.05.08 | v0.7.x Final release, v0.7.3 |
| 2025.05.06 | Release candidates, v0.8.5rc1 |
| 2025.04.28 | Release candidates, v0.8.4rc2 |
| 2025.04.18 | Release candidates, v0.8.4rc1 |
| 2025.03.28 | Release candidates, v0.7.3rc2 |
| 2025.03.14 | Release candidates, v0.7.3rc1 |
| 2025.02.19 | Release candidates, v0.7.1rc1 |
Branch policy
vLLM Ascend includes two branches: main and dev.
- main: corresponds to the vLLM main branch and latest 1 or 2 release version. It is continuously monitored for quality through Ascend CI.
- vX.Y.Z-dev: development branch, created with part of new releases of vLLM. For example,
v0.7.3-devis the dev branch for vLLMv0.7.3version.
Commits should typically be merged into the main branch first, and only then backported to the dev branch, to reduce maintenance costs as much as possible.
Maintenance branch and EOL
The table below lists branch states.
| Branch | Time Frame | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Maintained | Approximately 2-3 minor versions | Bugfixes received; releases produced; CI commitment |
| Unmaintained | Community-interest driven | Bugfixes received; no releases produced; no CI commitment |
| End of Life (EOL) | N/A | Branch no longer accepting changes |
Branch states
Note that vLLM Ascend will only be released for a certain vLLM release version, not for every version. Hence, you may notice that some versions have corresponding dev branches (e.g. 0.7.1-dev and 0.7.3-dev ), while others do not (e.g. 0.7.2-dev).
Usually, each minor version of vLLM (such as 0.7) corresponds to a vLLM Ascend version branch and supports its latest version (such as 0.7.3), as shown below:
| Branch | State | Note |
|---|---|---|
| main | Maintained | CI commitment for vLLM main branch |
| v0.11.0-dev | Maintained | CI commitment for vLLM 0.11.0 version |
| v0.9.1-dev | Maintained | CI commitment for vLLM 0.9.1 version |
| v0.7.3-dev | Maintained | CI commitment for vLLM 0.7.3 version |
| v0.7.1-dev | Unmaintained | Replaced by v0.7.3-dev |
Feature branches
| Branch | State | RFC Link | Scheduled Merge Time | Mentor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| rfc/long_seq_optimization | Maintained | https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/issues/22693 | 930 | wangxiyuan |
- Branch: The feature branch should be created with a prefix
rfc/followed by the feature name, such asrfc/feature-name. - State: The state of the feature branch is
Maintaineduntil it is merged into the main branch or deleted. - RFC Link: The feature branch should be created with a corresponding RFC issue. The creation of a feature branch requires an RFC and approval from at least two maintainers.
- Scheduled Merge Time: The final goal of a feature branch is to be merged into the main branch. If it remains unmerged for more than three months, the mentor maintainer should evaluate whether to delete the branch.
- Mentor: The mentor should be a vLLM Ascend maintainer who is responsible for the feature branch.
Backward compatibility
For main branch, vLLM Ascend should works with vLLM main branch and latest 1 or 2 releases. To ensure backward compatibility, do as follows:
- Both main branch and target vLLM release, such as the vLLM main branch and vLLM 0.8.4, are tested by Ascend E2E CI.
- To make sure that code changes are compatible with the latest 1 or 2 vLLM releases, vLLM Ascend introduces a version check mechanism inside the code. It checks the version of the installed vLLM package first to decide which code logic to use. If users hit the
InvalidVersionerror, it may indicate that they have installed a dev or editable version of vLLM package. In this case, we provide the env variableVLLM_VERSIONto let users specify the version of vLLM package to use. - Document changes should be compatible with the latest 1 or 2 vLLM releases. Notes should be added if there are any breaking changes.
Document branch policy
To reduce maintenance costs, all branch documentation content should remain consistent, and version differences can be controlled via variables in docs/source/conf.py. While this is not a simple task, it is a principle we should strive to follow.
| Version | Purpose | Code Branch |
|---|---|---|
| latest | Doc for the latest dev branch | vX.Y.Z-dev (Will be main after the first final release) |
| version | Doc for historical released versions | Git tags, like vX.Y.Z[rcN] |
| stable (not yet released) | Doc for latest final release branch | Will be vX.Y.Z-dev after the first official release |
Notes:
latestdocumentation: Matches the current maintenance branchvX.Y.Z-dev(will bemainafter the first final release). It is continuously updated to ensure usability for the latest release.versiondocumentation: Corresponds to specific released versions (e.g.,v0.7.3,v0.7.3rc1). There are no further updates after release.stabledocumentation (not yet released): Official release documentation. Updates are allowed in real-time after release, typically based on vX.Y.Z-dev. Once stable documentation is available, non-stable versions should display a header warning:You are viewing the latest developer preview docs. Click here to view docs for the latest stable release..
Software dependency management
torch-npu: Ascend Extension for PyTorch (torch-npu) releases a stable version to PyPi every 3 months, a development version (aka the POC version) every month, and a nightly version every day. The PyPi stable version CAN be used in vLLM Ascend final version, the monthly dev version ONLY CAN be used in vLLM Ascend RC version for rapid iteration, and the nightly version CANNOT be used in vLLM Ascend any version and branch.