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Velocity5.0

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Monthly releases on time, security out-of-band, and the changelog living somewhere else

monthly-release-trainsecurity-patchesself-hostedlong-term-branchesadmin-documentation
◆Current state
Discourse ships a dated minor every month — 2026.4 through 2026.8 in this window — and back-patches several supported branches alongside each one. The August release carries patches for 2026.7.2, 2026.6.3 and 2026.1.8, meaning a branch cut in January is still receiving fixes eight months on. Critical security work travels separately as out-of-band intermediate releases. The release topics carry no detail of their own; each links out to releases.discourse.org, so the substance of any given month is not visible from this feed.
◆Where it's heading
The cadence is the signal and it has not wavered: a monthly minor, patches reaching back to branches cut in January, and security decoupled from the feature train. That is the maintenance posture of self-hosted software whose installs upgrade on their own schedule, and the branch count is the tell — 2026.1 has now taken its eighth patch, so an install that has sat still since January remains covered. Where the product is actually heading surfaces in the documentation instead, where the AI bot's support for external MCP servers is the only entry in the last ten describing a capability rather than a version number.
◆Prediction
September's 2026.9 topic is the near-certain next entry, in the same pointer shape, with 2026.1 likely taking another patch. What lands inside any of them cannot be read from this feed — these topics are links, so a call on product direction would have to come from the linked changelog rather than from here.

◆Recent moves

  1. 21d ago

    August 2026 monthly release

    2026.8 lands on the monthly beat, with patch releases for the 2026.7, 2026.6 and 2026.1 branches alongside it. The notable number is 2026.1.8 — the January branch taking its eighth patch — which extends the long-support pattern by another month. As with every release topic here, the content is a link to releases.discourse.org, so the release's punctuality is visible from the feed and its substance is not.

    View source ↗
  2. 1mo ago

    July 31st 2026 intermediate releases

    An out-of-band security release covering four lines at once — the 2026.8 pre-release plus the 2026.7, 2026.6 and 2026.1 branches. It demonstrates the support commitment the monthly train only implies: a branch cut in January still receives critical fixes in July. No feature content, by design.

    View source ↗
  3. 1mo ago

    July 2026 monthly release

    The 2026.7 minor, on schedule, with patch releases for the 2026.1, 2026.5 and 2026.6 branches alongside it. The topic links to the changelog rather than listing changes, so the release's substance is not visible from the feed — only its punctuality.

    View source ↗
  4. 2mo ago

    June 2026 monthly release

    2026.6, on the same monthly beat, with back-patches to 2026.1, 2026.4 and 2026.5. The three-branch patch spread is the routine here rather than the exception.

    View source ↗
  5. 3mo ago

    May 2026 monthly release

    2026.5 arrives on time but with no accompanying patch releases listed — the one month in this window where the back-branch work is absent from the topic.

    View source ↗
  6. 4mo ago

    May 19th 2026 intermediate releases

    The previous out-of-band security drop, spanning the 2026.5 pre-release line and the 2026.4, 2026.3 and 2026.1 branches. Paired with the July 31 release it sets the rhythm: critical fixes arrive on their own schedule and are never folded into the monthly train.

    View source ↗