Codesversion

Codesversion is a conceptual standard for encoding version information of software artifacts and their code provenance in a machine-readable string. It is designed to improve traceability across build, release, and deployment processes by combining a familiar numeric version with explicit provenance data such as repository identity, commit hash, and origin URL. Codesversion aims to complement existing versioning schemes rather than replace them, allowing teams to embed contextual metadata into the version identifier itself.

Canonical form and components: The codesversion string typically contains two parts: a numeric version portion and an optional provenance portion. The numeric portion follows a semantic-style pattern: major.minor.patch, with optional pre-release labels (for example -alpha, -beta, -rc) and optional build metadata (for example +build.123). The provenance portion appears as a sequence of key=value pairs separated by semicolons, appended after the numeric part. Common keys include repo (repository hash or identifier), commit (commit hash), origin (URL of the source repository), and env (deployment environment). An example: codesversion 3.4.1-rc.2+build.1102;repo=abcdef123;commit=deadbeef1234;origin=https://git.example.org/org/repo.git;env=production.

Relation to existing practices: Codesversion borrows concepts from semantic versioning and build metadata, but explicitly codifies code provenance within the version string to facilitate automated provenance tracking and reproducible deployments. Adoption is voluntary and varies by organization; the standard is discussed in software engineering communities and is supported by tooling that parses and enforces versioning rules.