# Herald Developer Changelog Glossary

Definitions of the terms developer teams use when talking about changelogs, release notes, and shipping software.

## Breaking Change

A change that requires consumers to update their code, config, or workflow to keep working.

URL: /glossary/breaking-change/
Markdown: /glossary/breaking-change.md
Category: Release Engineering
Last reviewed: 2026-05-28

## Canary Release

A deployment pattern that rolls a new version to a small subset of users first and expands only if metrics hold.

URL: /glossary/canary-release/
Markdown: /glossary/canary-release.md
Category: Release Engineering
Last reviewed: 2026-05-28

## Changelog

The running log of changes a product ships over time, organized by release.

URL: /glossary/changelog/
Markdown: /glossary/changelog.md
Category: Changelog Fundamentals
Last reviewed: 2026-05-28

## Changelog vs Release Notes

Changelog = the running log of all changes; release notes = the subset for a specific version.

URL: /glossary/changelog-vs-release-notes/
Markdown: /glossary/changelog-vs-release-notes.md
Category: Changelog Fundamentals
Last reviewed: 2026-05-28

## Conventional Changelog

The open-source tooling that turns Conventional Commits history into an auto-generated CHANGELOG.md.

URL: /glossary/conventional-changelog/
Markdown: /glossary/conventional-changelog.md
Category: Developer Process
Last reviewed: 2026-05-28

## Conventional Commits

A commit message convention that pairs structured prefixes with descriptions so tools can generate changelogs and bump versions automatically.

URL: /glossary/conventional-commits/
Markdown: /glossary/conventional-commits.md
Category: Developer Process
Last reviewed: 2026-05-28

## Deprecation Policy

A published commitment about how a product marks, supports, and removes features being phased out.

URL: /glossary/deprecation-policy/
Markdown: /glossary/deprecation-policy.md
Category: Quality & Trust
Last reviewed: 2026-05-28

## Product Update

The umbrella term for any communication about a software change — covering release notes, changelogs, in-app announcements, and marketing emails.

URL: /glossary/product-update/
Markdown: /glossary/product-update.md
Category: Distribution
Last reviewed: 2026-05-28

## Release Notes

The per-release subset of a changelog, written for the audience consuming a specific version.

URL: /glossary/release-notes/
Markdown: /glossary/release-notes.md
Category: Changelog Fundamentals
Last reviewed: 2026-05-28

## Release Train

A fixed-cadence release model where the schedule never slips and features that aren't ready wait for the next train.

URL: /glossary/release-train/
Markdown: /glossary/release-train.md
Category: Release Engineering
Last reviewed: 2026-05-28