From 546b7d620e806f08e0caecd8fb8fea4feac00f38 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joyee Cheung Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2026 12:47:43 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 1/2] doc: clarify that V8 major upgrade uses stable release Along with Chrome, V8 has several different release channels. A V8 release only reaches stable after the stable cut has been rolled out and tested in several Chrome release channels, where regressions and bugs are discovered and fixed. This patch clarifies that we follow the _stable release_ of main branch to reduce the amount of churn needed. The V8 stable releases are already battle tested in Chrome and generally contain fewer regressions/bugs that would require another refresh to address. Signed-off-by: Joyee Cheung --- doc/contributing/maintaining/maintaining-V8.md | 11 +++++++++-- 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/contributing/maintaining/maintaining-V8.md b/doc/contributing/maintaining/maintaining-V8.md index f5eb6faac234..505fb6edf521 100644 --- a/doc/contributing/maintaining/maintaining-V8.md +++ b/doc/contributing/maintaining/maintaining-V8.md @@ -327,8 +327,15 @@ Revision_ from the 5.4 branch that can be useful in the update process above. ### Major updates -We upgrade the version of V8 in Node.js `main` whenever a V8 release goes stable -upstream, that is, whenever a new release of Chrome comes out. +Along with Chrome, V8 has several +[different release channels](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/docs/process/release_cycle.md). +A V8 release only reaches stable after the stable cut has been rolled out and tested +in several Chrome release channels, where regressions and bugs are discovered and fixed. + +In the Node.js `main` branch, we upgrade the version of V8 whenever a +release of V8 finishes stable promotion and a _stable release_ is out. +The schedule of V8 release cycles can be found +[here](https://chromiumdash.appspot.com/schedule). V8 updates can require a `NODE_MODULE_VERSION` bump if they change the native addon ABI. See the release process documentation for when From 6581266db960f80977041d53dc20f7ee51fcbc06 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joyee Cheung Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2026 14:15:20 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Update maintaining-V8.md Co-authored-by: Antoine du Hamel --- doc/contributing/maintaining/maintaining-V8.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/doc/contributing/maintaining/maintaining-V8.md b/doc/contributing/maintaining/maintaining-V8.md index 505fb6edf521..880a06425d0e 100644 --- a/doc/contributing/maintaining/maintaining-V8.md +++ b/doc/contributing/maintaining/maintaining-V8.md @@ -332,7 +332,7 @@ Along with Chrome, V8 has several A V8 release only reaches stable after the stable cut has been rolled out and tested in several Chrome release channels, where regressions and bugs are discovered and fixed. -In the Node.js `main` branch, we upgrade the version of V8 whenever a +In the Node.js `main` branch, we typically upgrade the version of V8 whenever a release of V8 finishes stable promotion and a _stable release_ is out. The schedule of V8 release cycles can be found [here](https://chromiumdash.appspot.com/schedule).