Semantic Versioning

What it does

This skill enables AI agents to generate, parse, and manage software version numbers using Semantic Versioning (SemVer) standards. It ensures consistent identification of releases by structuring versions into major, minor, and patch components for clear dependency tracking.

When to use it

• Defining release tags for new features that do not break existing functionality.
• Identifying breaking changes in codebases that require user migration or updates.
• Automating version bumping workflows in CI/CD pipelines based on change types.
• Resolving dependency conflicts by comparing specific semantic version constraints.

Key capabilities

• Generates compliant MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH version strings.
• Determines the correct next version number based on change severity (breaking, feature, or bug fix).
• Parses existing version strings to extract individual component values.
• Validates version formats against standard SemVer rules.

Example prompts

• "Generate a new semantic version for this release that adds user authentication but does not break existing login flows."
• "Analyze these code changes and determine if the next version should be 2.0.0, 1.1.0, or 1.0.1 based on SemVer rules."
• "List all valid semantic versions between 1.4.5 and 2.0.0 that satisfy the constraint '>=1.4.5 <2.0.0'."

Tips & gotchas

Ensure your AI agent distinguishes clearly between breaking changes (increment major) and non-breaking additions or fixes to avoid version drift. Always validate generated versions against strict regex patterns to prevent malformed numbers like v1..2 or 1.2.3-beta.