# Releases

> How a new version of Home Assistant comes together every month, and how you can help test it, explain it, and ship it.

Source: https://contributors.home-assistant.io/releases/

A new version of Home Assistant comes out on the first Wednesday of every month. Before that, there is a week of beta testing. After it, there are weekly patch releases with fixes. That rhythm has been the same for years, and everyone who contributes works with it.

This area explains how that cycle works, and how you can help. You do not need to be a developer for most of it: testing a beta, reporting what broke, and making release notes clear are some of the most useful things anyone can do.

## Start here

- [Your first contribution](https://contributors.home-assistant.io/releases/first-contribution/): join the beta, and test the next release in your own home.
- [How releases work](https://contributors.home-assistant.io/releases/how-it-works/): the monthly cycle, from development to patch releases.

## Guides

For everyone:

- [Release notes and the release party](https://contributors.home-assistant.io/releases/guides/release-notes/): how the release notes are made, and how to help.

For developers, when your change affects users:

- [Document a backward-incompatible change](https://contributors.home-assistant.io/releases/guides/backward-incompatible-changes/): explain to users what changes, and what to do about it.
- [Deprecate something](https://contributors.home-assistant.io/releases/guides/deprecations/): how removing something works, and how long it takes.
- [Get a fix into a patch release](https://contributors.home-assistant.io/releases/guides/patch-releases/): how fixes reach the beta and the patch releases.

## Reference

- [Versions and channels](https://contributors.home-assistant.io/releases/reference/versions/): what a version number means, and the stable, beta, and dev channels.
- [Who does what](https://contributors.home-assistant.io/releases/reference/roles/): the people involved in a release.

## Who to talk to

- Testing a beta? Join the [**#beta**](https://discord.com/channels/330944238910963714/427516175237382144) channel on the [Home Assistant Discord server](https://www.home-assistant.io/join-chat).
- Found a bug in a beta? Report it in the [issue tracker](https://github.com/home-assistant/core/issues) of the part that broke. See [Your first contribution](https://contributors.home-assistant.io/releases/first-contribution/#4-report-what-breaks).
- The release and beta dates are in the [events calendar](https://contributors.home-assistant.io/community/reference/events/).