Semantic Versioning (SemVer)

SemVer is merely a promise from the publisher, not a code-level enforced check, and the changelog or release notes should still be reviewed before actually upgrading.

Under semantic versioning, an incremented patch number means backward-compatible fixes or internal adjustments, and the public API is expected to be unchanged.

The jump from 2.0.68 to 2.0.69 theoretically means callers can upgrade without modifying any code.

For the npm ecosystem, a patch version of a package may indirectly change behavior because its own dependencies are hoisted, so the semantic promise does not guarantee that the entire dependency tree is frozen.

In semantic versioning, incrementing the patch digit indicates backward-compatible bug fixes that introduce no new features and make no breaking changes; incrementing the minor digit indicates backward-compatible new features; incrementing the major digit means changes that may break existing code.

SemVer only constrains the public API, and dependency updates may indirectly change runtime behavior.

In Semantic Versioning (SemVer), a patch version increment is strictly limited to backward-compatible bug fixes, introducing no new features and making no changes to the public API.