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What Is the Feature Forge

SemVer answers one question: did the plugin payload change? A version bump means every user gets the new payload. It says nothing about whether a given feature inside that payload is ready to trust by default.

The Feature Forge answers the second question, per feature. A feature can ship in preview: opt-in, dormant, off by default. It rides along in a release without changing anyone’s behavior until they turn it on. Once real-world evidence shows it holds up, it gets promoted to stable and becomes on by default. The version says the whole payload moved; the forge says which individual features have earned trust.

That is the two-axis model. Read them together and a release is legible: SemVer governs the whole payload, the Feature Forge governs each feature’s maturity.

Two-axis labeling model. SemVer governs the whole plugin payload; the Feature Forge governs each feature as preview (opt-in, dormant) or stable (on by default, evidence-promoted).
Two axes: SemVer for the whole payload, the Feature Forge for per-feature maturity.

Promotion is driven by evidence, not by a calendar. A preview feature graduates when its real-world use shows it is safe to default on, and that judgment is recorded as a tracked decision rather than assumed. The forge keeps the cost of trying something new low and the cost of trusting it honest.

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