versionsled

Versionsled is a hypothetical open-standard protocol and reference implementation designed to manage version information in LED lighting devices and their firmware. It provides a uniform method for devices to report software and hardware versions, capabilities, and update status to controllers and management software.

The goal of Versionsled is to simplify compatibility checks between controllers and devices, support semantic versioning, hardware revisions, and OTA update flows. It defines how version data is represented and exposed, and describes a minimal API for querying and signaling version information.

The core data model centers on a VersionDescriptor containing major, minor, and patch numbers, optional prerelease and build metadata, plus an optional HardwareRevision and a Capabilities list. Messages can be transported as a lightweight TLV payload or JSON over a device management interface, or embedded into a status indicator on the device.

Reference implementations exist for embedded systems in C or C++, and tooling in Python or JavaScript. In LED ecosystems that adopt Versionsled, devices expose version data via a boot log, a management API, or a status LED pattern that encodes the version.

Versionsled originated as a community proposal to improve interoperability in LED firmware ecosystems and is not an official standard. It remains widely used in documentation and education as a model concept.

Related concepts include semantic versioning, firmware OTA mechanisms, and LED control protocols.