What Are Release States?

A release can be in one of these states: Draft, Pre-Release, or Public.

State Description

State	Description
Draft	Indicates that the features of the release are under development. When you create a release, you specify the Maven artifacts and the Git repository tags. While adding a Git repository to a release, you may want to specify a branch that has the stable code at the time of release. Usually, it’s the `main` branch, but you can specify any branch name. You may also want to specify the Git repository tag that indicates the stable state of the branch. Usually, the tag is created before the release when the code in the branch is stable. While creating a Release, if you specify a tag name that doesn’t exist, it’s automatically created when you change the status of the Release to Public.
Pre-Release	Indicates that the release is stable, but might need some fixes before it becomes Public. You usually set the release’s status to this state after your team has completed all features, staged the software, and are awaiting approvals to release the software. If the Maven artifacts, Git repositories, tags, or branch names have changed since the release was in the Draft state, edit the release and update the artifacts.
Public	Indicates that the release is public or is ready to go public. While creating a release, if you specify a tag name that doesn’t exist, it will be automatically created for the specified branch when the release is set to Public. If you specified an existing tag name, it will be used. This might be useful when you create a release that is already public. You might want to edit the release and update the Maven artifacts, Git repositories, tags, or branch names if they have changed while the release was in the Pre-Release or the Draft state.

Draft

Indicates that the features of the release are under development.

When you create a release, you specify the Maven artifacts and the Git repository tags. While adding a Git repository to a release, you may want to specify a branch that has the stable code at the time of release. Usually, it’s the main branch, but you can specify any branch name. You may also want to specify the Git repository tag that indicates the stable state of the branch. Usually, the tag is created before the release when the code in the branch is stable. While creating a Release, if you specify a tag name that doesn’t exist, it’s automatically created when you change the status of the Release to Public.

Pre-Release

Indicates that the release is stable, but might need some fixes before it becomes Public.

You usually set the release’s status to this state after your team has completed all features, staged the software, and are awaiting approvals to release the software. If the Maven artifacts, Git repositories, tags, or branch names have changed since the release was in the Draft state, edit the release and update the artifacts.

Public

Indicates that the release is public or is ready to go public.

While creating a release, if you specify a tag name that doesn’t exist, it will be automatically created for the specified branch when the release is set to Public. If you specified an existing tag name, it will be used. This might be useful when you create a release that is already public.

You might want to edit the release and update the Maven artifacts, Git repositories, tags, or branch names if they have changed while the release was in the Pre-Release or the Draft state.