Support and product lifecycle
Owner: Kristopher Turner / Hybrid Solutions Cloud
Applies from: 2026-07-24
Review cadence: Before every release and at least every 90 days
Current support status
Vault Prospector is a Preview product for non-production evaluation. The only currently supported evaluation build is 0.3.0-preview.6. “Supported” at this stage means that the maintainer accepts privacy-safe feedback and private vulnerability reports and may provide a replacement Preview or containment guidance. It is not a production-support commitment or contractual service-level agreement.
There is no supported stable or GA release. Source branches, pull-request artifacts, CI builds, prototypes, withdrawn releases, and locally built packages are not supported distributions.
Version states
| State | Meaning | Maintenance behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Current Preview | Latest Preview explicitly named in the release-scope document | Feedback and vulnerability intake; security or release-blocking defects may receive a replacement immutable Preview |
| Superseded | A newer supported Preview or stable release is available | No routine fixes; upgrade to the named replacement |
| Withdrawn | The release has a trust, security, data-loss, upgrade, or core-function defect | Do not install; follow published containment/recovery guidance |
| Current stable | A future release explicitly approved through every GA gate | Production support begins only when its release record publishes scope, supported platforms, channels, and end-of-support terms |
| End of support | The announced support period has ended | No fixes or routine investigation; users must upgrade or remove the product |
Only a release record and the canonical release-scope document can move a version between these states. Assets remain immutable: withdrawal or replacement never changes files under an existing version.
Preview supersedence and withdrawal
Publishing a newer Preview supersedes older Preview builds unless the new release record explicitly states otherwise. The older build receives no routine fixes. A security-sensitive or broken build may be withdrawn immediately without advance notice. Withdrawal requires:
- a prominent notice on the release;
- affected-version and immutable-artifact identification;
- safe containment, credential-rotation, upgrade, or local-state recovery guidance;
- package-manager withdrawal or moderation requests when applicable; and
- a release-evidence record linked from the readiness matrix.
The current history is:
| Version | State | Required action |
|---|---|---|
0.3.0-preview.6 | Current Preview | Non-production manual testing only |
0.3.0-preview.5 | Superseded Preview | Upgrade to 0.3.0-preview.6 |
0.3.0-preview.3 | Superseded Preview | Upgrade to 0.3.0-preview.6 |
0.3.0-preview.2 | Withdrawn | Do not install; upgrade to 0.3.0-preview.6 |
0.2.0-preview.5 | Superseded Preview | Upgrade to the current Preview |
0.2.0-preview.4 | Withdrawn | Do not install; upgrade to 0.2.0-preview.5, which corrects its first-run identity-type defect |
0.2.0-preview.3 | Withdrawn | Do not install; upgrade to the current Preview |
0.2.0-preview.1 | Superseded Preview | Upgrade to the current Preview |
0.1.1-preview.1 | Superseded Preview | Upgrade to the current Preview |
0.1.0-preview.2 | Withdrawn | Do not install or resubmit |
0.1.0-ci.68 | Superseded CI artifact | Replace with the current Preview |
Stable and GA end-of-support policy
Before the first stable or GA release, its go/no-go record must publish:
- supported Windows editions/builds and processor architecture;
- supported direct, WinGet, and Chocolatey installation/update paths;
- the supported release line and exact upgrade path;
- an end-of-support date and successor policy;
- support/security owners and a backup operator;
- signing-certificate custody, expiration, rotation, revocation, and compromise handling; and
- any dependency or platform end-of-support date that occurs earlier.
A planned GA end of support requires at least 90 calendar days’ public notice and a tested upgrade path to a supported successor. An immediate withdrawal is permitted when continued distribution would expose protected data, bypass a security boundary, break upgrade/recovery, or invalidate artifact trust. The security exception takes precedence over the notice period.
Vault Prospector never claims support beyond an underlying runtime or operating-system lifecycle. The operational-readiness monitor warns 120 days before a recorded runtime end-of-support date and fails after that date. A release candidate cannot pass GA while its required runtime or supported Windows baseline will expire inside the announced product support period.
Channels and response targets
| Request | Channel | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Non-sensitive Preview feedback | Public feedback instructions | Queue reviewed each business day; initial classification within three business days |
| Suspected vulnerability | Private email in SECURITY.md | Acknowledge within three business days; initial severity assessment or evidence request within seven business days |
| Package validation | Relevant WinGet or Chocolatey moderation channel | Best effort; provider timelines are outside HCS control |
These are Preview operational targets, not contractual SLAs. Never submit credentials, tokens, secret values, private keys, sensitive screenshots, or unredacted diagnostics through a public channel.
Dependency and platform maintenance
Dependabot checks desktop and mobile NuGet manifests and the browser and design-prototype npm manifests each week. Dependency pull requests are not auto-merged. They must preserve lock files, pass the applicable locked build/security/package workflows, and receive normal review.
The scheduled Azure DevOps operational-readiness pipeline checks the machine-readable ownership/lifecycle contract, direct and transitive desktop NuGet vulnerabilities, runtime lifecycle dates, and public release/support endpoints. Its JSON report is retained as pipeline evidence. A failed scheduled run is a support-owner action item and blocks a release until it is dispositioned.
Patch updates should be evaluated promptly. A known critical/high vulnerability, runtime end of support, compromised build action, or broken public endpoint triggers immediate triage under the release operations and incident runbook.
Review record
Every lifecycle review records the date, current supported version, dependency/runtime status, public-channel checks, credential/signing inventory, owner, reviewer, exceptions, and corrective dates in release evidence. G-08 remains in progress until a backup operator is named, the scheduled monitor has successful hosted history, the complete runbook exercise passes, and Microsoft Store trust evidence exists.