loki/docs/sources/community/maintaining/release/_index.md

---
title: Releasing Grafana Loki
description: Releasing Grafana Loki
aliases:
- ../../maintaining/release/
weight: 500
---
# Releasing Grafana Loki

This document is a series of instructions for core Grafana Loki maintainers to be able
to publish a new [Grafana Loki](https://github.com/grafana/loki) release.

The general process for releasing a new version of Grafana Loki is to merge the release PR for that version. Every commit to branches matching the pattern `release-[0-9]+.[0-9]+.x` will trigger a [prepare patch release]({{< relref "./prepare-release.md" >}}) workflow. This workflow will build release candidates for that patch, automatically generate release notes based on the commits since the last release, and update the long-running PR for that release. To publish the release, merge the PR.

Every commit to branches matching the pattern `k[0-9]+` will trigger a [prepare minor release]({{< relref "./prepare-release.md" >}}) workflow. This follows the same process as a patch release, but prepares a minor release instead. To publish the minor release, merge the PR.

Releasing a new major version requires a [custom major release workflow]({{< relref "./major-release.md" >}}) to be created to run of the branch we want to release from. Once that workflow is created, the steps for releasing a new major are the same as a minor or patch release.

## Release stable version

1. [Create release branch]({{< relref "./create-release-branch" >}})
1. [Backport commits]({{< relref "./backport-commits" >}})
1. [Document Metrics and Configurations changes]({{< relref "./document-metrics-configurations-changes" >}})
1. [Prepare Upgrade guide]({{< relref "./prepare-upgrade-guide" >}})
1. [Update version numbers]({{< relref "./update-version-numbers" >}})

## Release patched version

1. [Backport commits]({{< relref "./backport-commits" >}})
1. [Document Metrics and Configurations changes]({{< relref "./document-metrics-configurations-changes" >}})
1. [Prepare Upgrade guide]({{< relref "./prepare-upgrade-guide" >}})
1. [Merge Release PR]({{< relref "./merge-release-pr" >}})
1. [Update version numbers]({{< relref "./update-version-numbers" >}})

## Release security patched version

1. [Patch vulnerabilities]({{< relref "./patch-vulnerabilities" >}})
1. [Backport commits]({{< relref "./backport-commits" >}})
1. [Merge Release PR]({{< relref "./merge-release-pr" >}})
1. [Update version numbers]({{< relref "./update-version-numbers" >}})