Release channels

What stable, beta, and alpha mean for @zama-fhe/sdk, and where to find what changed in each.

@zama-fhe/sdk and @zama-fhe/react-sdk publish to three npm dist-tags, one per branch:

Channel	Install	Branch	Tracks
Stable	npm i @zama-fhe/sdk	main	Currently deployed mainnet/testnet protocol
Beta	npm i @zama-fhe/sdk@beta	beta	Currently deployed mainnet/testnet protocol
Alpha	npm i @zama-fhe/sdk@alpha	alpha	Upcoming, not-yet-deployed protocol changes

Stable and beta both target the protocol version actually running on mainnet and testnet today — beta simply carries changes that haven't had a stable release yet. Alpha is different in kind, not just in stability. It tracks upcoming protocol changes that aren't deployed anywhere yet, closer to a DevNet than a "more bleeding-edge beta." Code that works on alpha can depend on protocol behavior that doesn't exist on any network you can actually reach yet.

If you didn't pick alpha on purpose, you almost certainly want beta or stable instead.

What's covered here

This changelog section covers main and beta — the two lines with real deployments behind them:

• Beta (unreleased) — changes on beta that haven't shipped in a stable release yet.

• 3.x (current) — plain-language release notes for the current stable major line, one page per minor version.

• Legacy versions — release notes for superseded major versions.

alpha doesn't get its own page or docs space here: its commits aren't written up until they're synced into beta, or reach a stable release on main.