← Patterns / practice
Four-part versions for docs
epoch.major.minor.patch, because a doc's history has one more kind of change than code's.
- Authors
- Michael Staton
- Augmented with
- Claude Code on Claude Opus 5.5
- Tags
- Versioning
What it is
at_semantic_version: 0.0.0.1
, read as
epoch.major.minor.patch
. New docs start at
0.0.0.1
.
Why
Docs change in more ways than software: a typo, a new section, a rewritten argument, a complete rethink. The extra digit leaves room for an epoch, a reset when a doc is reborn as something else, without inflating the major number.
How
-
Patch: wording, fixes. Minor: new sections or real additions. Major: the doc's position changed. Epoch: it's a different doc now.
-
The version moves with
date_authored_current_draft, on substantive revisions only. -
semantic_versionis an accepted alias. Never rewrite a file just to change which spelling it uses.