--- title: Valkey · On release candidates | daily.dev description: Explains what a Valkey release candidate (RC) actually means and who should care about it. Valkey follows SemVer with major, minor, and patch releases; each... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/valkey-on-release-candidates-ie96vg4i1 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Valkey · On release candidates | daily.dev og:description: Explains what a Valkey release candidate (RC) actually means and who should care about it. Valkey follows SemVer with major, minor, and patch releases; each... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/valkey-on-release-candidates-ie96vg4i1 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ie96vG4i1.png og:image:alt: Valkey · On release candidates og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Valkey · On release candidates **[Valkey](https://daily.dev/sources/valkey-blog)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Explains what a Valkey release candidate (RC) actually means and who should care about it. Valkey follows SemVer with major, minor, and patch releases; each feature release gets one or more RCs (rc1, rc2, etc.) meant to include all planned user-facing changes while internal changes may lag. RCs are aimed at tool/framework/module builders who want early feedback opportunities and lead time to build against a stabilizing API, but they are never meant for production and API-compatible users can safely wait for GA. RCs are quietly published on GitHub releases and Docker Hub (no press releases or package manager listings), can be built via git checkout of a tag like 9.1.0-rc1, and expose their stage via the valkey_release_stage field in the INFO command output. Bug reports during RC testing should be filed promptly on GitHub with clear RC labeling. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What does the valkey_release_stage field mean when I run INFO on a Valkey release candidate? It reports which release candidate build is running, such as rc1, so you can confirm you're testing a pre-GA version. This appears alongside valkey_version in the INFO command output, letting you distinguish a release candidate like 9.1.0-rc1 from the eventual generally available 9.1.0 release. _daily.dev helps engineers testing Valkey release candidates keep track of versioning quirks like this one._ ### How many release candidates does Valkey typically publish before a feature release goes GA? Valkey typically publishes two or three release candidates per generally available feature release, labeled sequentially as rc1, rc2, rc3, and so on. Patch releases usually skip release candidates entirely since they only fix bugs and have a more limited scope. The gap between the final RC and GA is meant to be small. _Teams planning upgrades track release candidate cadence for Valkey on daily.dev before committing to a GA date._ ### How do I get and build a Valkey release candidate without waiting for a package manager release? Fetch the tag from the official GitHub repository and build it yourself, since release candidates aren't distributed through package managers or standalone packages. For example, checkout the tag 9.1.0-rc1 with git fetch and git checkout, then run make all. Alternatively, Valkey publishes release candidates as tags on Docker Hub to skip building from source. _daily.dev keeps developers building against pre-release Valkey tags informed on ecosystem tooling changes._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Valkey just had a 17x year. Its lead maintainer still doesn’t want Redis to die.](https://daily.dev/posts/valkey-just-had-a-17x-year-its-lead-maintainer-still-doesn-t-want-redis-to-die--hymzgle9p) · The New Stack · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Valkey 9.0 Released With Ability To Achieve One Billion Requests / Second](https://daily.dev/posts/valkey-9-0-released-with-ability-to-achieve-one-billion-requests-second-4b2f2pigi) · Phoronix · 48 upvotes · 1 comments - [Spring News Roundup: First Release Candidates of Boot, Security, GraphQL, Integration, Modulith](https://daily.dev/posts/spring-news-roundup-first-release-candidates-of-boot-security-graphql-integration-modulith-za76zd372) · InfoQ · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Valkey 9.0 Introduces Multi-Database Clustering, Atomic Slot Migration, and Major Performance Gains](https://daily.dev/posts/valkey-9-0-introduces-multi-database-clustering-atomic-slot-migration-and-major-performance-gains-2gkxrlley) · InfoQ · 7 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#redis](https://daily.dev/tags/redis), [#semantic-versioning](https://daily.dev/tags/semantic-versioning), [#valkey](https://daily.dev/tags/valkey) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/valkey-on-release-candidates-ie96vg4i1) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Valkey · On release candidates","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/valkey-on-release-candidates-ie96vg4i1","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/valkey-on-release-candidates-ie96vg4i1"},"datePublished":"2026-08-23T12:22:03.095Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T02:23:25.212Z","description":"Explains what a Valkey release candidate (RC) actually means and who should care about it. Valkey follows SemVer with major, minor, and patch releases; each...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--foaA6JGU--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2004","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--foaA6JGU--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2004","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Valkey","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Valkey","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--XXPzEmD8--/f_auto,q_auto/v1787487496/logos/valkey-blog?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/valkey-blog"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/valkey-on-release-candidates-ie96vg4i1","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,redis,semantic-versioning,valkey","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Valkey","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/valkey-blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Valkey · On release candidates"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/valkey-on-release-candidates-ie96vg4i1#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What does the valkey_release_stage field mean when I run INFO on a Valkey release candidate?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"It reports which release candidate build is running, such as rc1, so you can confirm you're testing a pre-GA version. This appears alongside valkey_version in the INFO command output, letting you distinguish a release candidate like 9.1.0-rc1 from the eventual generally available 9.1.0 release. daily.dev helps engineers testing Valkey release candidates keep track of versioning quirks like this one."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How many release candidates does Valkey typically publish before a feature release goes GA?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Valkey typically publishes two or three release candidates per generally available feature release, labeled sequentially as rc1, rc2, rc3, and so on. Patch releases usually skip release candidates entirely since they only fix bugs and have a more limited scope. The gap between the final RC and GA is meant to be small. Teams planning upgrades track release candidate cadence for Valkey on daily.dev before committing to a GA date."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I get and build a Valkey release candidate without waiting for a package manager release?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Fetch the tag from the official GitHub repository and build it yourself, since release candidates aren't distributed through package managers or standalone packages. For example, checkout the tag 9.1.0-rc1 with git fetch and git checkout, then run make all. Alternatively, Valkey publishes release candidates as tags on Docker Hub to skip building from source. daily.dev keeps developers building against pre-release Valkey tags informed on ecosystem tooling changes."}}]} ```