Release Timelines
Welcome to the Release Timelines overview page. Here you can always find the most up-to-date release schedules for both Eclipse Tractus-X and Catena-X.
For a detailed explanation of the overall process and the release cycle, please refer to the Release management section.
Overview of further upcoming releases
This overview provides a high-level view of all planned releases.
Overall timeline for Releases from 2025 to 2026
Catena-X and Eclipse Tractus-X Release Schedules
The following sections describe the release cycles, including both Catena-X internal milestones and Eclipse Tractus-X open milestones. Each phase contributes to transparency, alignment, and coordinated delivery across all participating committees and expert groups.
- Milestones colored in green and marked with the Tractus-X logo are open to the public and available on the Tractus-X Open Meetings page.
- Milestones colored in orange and marked with the Catena-X logo represent internal sessions organized by the Catena-X Association.
Catena-X Titan, incl. Eclipse Tractus-X Release 25.12 & 26.03
Catena-X Titan represents a minor release focused on incremental improvements and stabilization of the existing ecosystem. Key objectives include refining previously introduced components, improving interoperability, and addressing technical feedback from earlier releases. This cycle ensures continuity, strengthens system quality, and prepares the foundation for upcoming major milestones.
Timeline for Release 25.12
Timeline for Release 26.03
Catena-X Neptune, incl. Eclipse Tractus-X Release 26.06 & 26.09
Catena-X Neptune marks a major release introducing substantial new functionalities and standard updates across the Catena-X ecosystem. It focuses on expanding interoperability, implementing new reference architectures, and advancing standardization efforts. This release sets the stage for wider adoption and deeper technical alignment within both Catena-X and Tractus-X.
Timeline for Release 26.06
Timeline for Release 26.09
Catena-X Proteus, incl. Eclipse Tractus-X Release 26.12 & 27.03
Proteus is another minor release and serves as the pendant to the major release CX-Neptune. It focuses on incremental improvements and the stabilization of the existing ecosystem. Key objectives include refining previously introduced components, enhancing interoperability, and addressing technical feedback from earlier releases. This cycle ensures continuity, strengthens system quality, and lays the foundation for upcoming major milestones.
Timeline for Release 26.12
Release Management – Phases
The following section explains all phases and milestones of the Release Management Process, from initial planning to final publication. Each phase ensures structured communication, consistent quality, and alignment between all participatings.
Planning Phase - Milestones and Phases
The Planning Phase marks the official start of a release cycle. During this phase, the vision, objectives, and strategic direction of the upcoming release are presented and communicated to all stakeholders.
Based on this guidance, committees and expert groups begin detailed planning for the release.
This includes:
- Defining and prioritizing roadmap items,
- Breaking down roadmap items into sub-issues, and
- Identifying dependencies between items and across teams.
The Planning Phase ensures that all participating teams share a common understanding of the goals, are aligned on priorities, and have a structured plan to guide development, integration, and standardization throughout the release cycle.
| Name | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Kick-off Release | Milestone/Meeting | Internal communication meeting of the vision for the upcoming release. The aim is to create a common understanding of the release scope, objectives, and priorities, and to encourage early engagement with other Expert Groups on intersecting topics and relevant dependencies. |
| Refinement Phase | Phase | During this phase, the necessary people and groups collaborate to refine the future roadmap items and features. Roadmap item/feature authors organize appointments and communicate with the relevant contacts directly. |
| Internal Roadmap Review | Milestone/internal Meeting | The Catena-X association reviews the existing roadmap items and provides feedback on whether the items are properly defined, whether they truly qualify as roadmap items or are rather individual tasks and leave comments to ensure further refinement where necessary. |
| CX-Roadmap Item Proposal | Milestone/Meeting | In this meeting committee's and expert groups share their ideas and topics with others. Get an overview of topics. Identify and discuss dependencies between topics. Gain insights into the overall roadmap for the whole year. |
| Draft Feature Freeze | Milestone | New topics/Roadmap Items can ’t be added. |
| Alignment Day | Milestone/Meeting | A dedicated Tractus-X meeting focused on cross-team alignment and clarification of open questions regarding specific features and their dependencies. The purpose of this meeting is solely to ensure alignment across teams, without delving into refinement or planning activities. The Alignment Day is an open Tractus-X meeting. Further information about this milestone can be found in the official documentation. Details on how to join are available here: Alignment Day. |
| Briefing Release Planning | Milestone/Meeting | This meeting is particularly valuable for those intending to contribute to Tractus-X or work on Catena-X standards or normative documents during the upcoming release. The purpose of the session is to ensure participants are well-prepared for Release Planning by: - Providing a comprehensive overview of the overall roadmap. - Sharing relevant organizational updates and context. This enables informed participation and alignment in the upcoming planning process. |
| Internal Planning Day | Milestone/Meeting | This meeting is dedicated to present roadmap items along with their associated sub-issues, as well as introduce any change requests related to normative documents. The planned work will be reviewed and discussed collaboratively, ensuring transparency, alignment, and mutual understanding across all stakeholders. |
| Open Planning Day | Milestone/Meeting | During this Tractus-X meeting, product teams present their features and discuss the feasibility of implementation, enabling a shared understanding of scope, dependencies, and technical challenges. The Open Planning Day is an open Tractus-X meeting. Further information about this milestone can be found in the official documentation. Details on how to join are available here: Alignment Day. |
| Town Hall Recap Planning Days | Milestone/Meeting | This meeting is dedicated to inform Catena-X members outside of formal committees and expert groups, who require a transparent understanding of upcoming releases and their strategic context. |
Development Phase - Milestones and Phases
The Development Phase represents the development period of the release cycle. During this phase, teams focus on the implementation of roadmap items which can include features and standards.
Key activities include:
- Designing, implementing, and testing features and components,
- Developing and refining standards and normative documents,
- Conducting integration and interoperability testing to ensure components work seamlessly within the ecosystem, and
- Preparing release candidates for subsequent testing and validation phases.
This phase is critical for ensuring that the release delivers high-quality, functional, and interoperable outputs, while maintaining alignment with strategic objectives and cross-team dependencies.
| Name | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Phase | Phase | The standard phase comprises the development of the standards. |
| Deadline standard request | Milestone | Deadline for the submission of standardization or change requests through GitHub. Link to Change Requests |
| Quality Gate 1 | Phase | A first quality gate (“quality gate I”) ensures that standard candidates moving forward are limited to those that adhere to the values and goals of the Catena-X data ecosystem. Each standard candidate is checked for relevance, redundancy, and conformance. Provided a green light has been given, the standard candidate is officially transferred into the release schedule. The quality gate criteria are depicted in the annex. |
| Main Creation Phase | Phase | In this stage, the actual standard is being created in its draft form. The moment, a standardization request has been approved, a corresponding standard template is being created and provided to the requesters. They are provided a time window in which the template must be filled out before submitting the draft standard candidate into the verification phase during the current release cycle. |
| Deadline for delivering standard candidate | Milestone | Strict deadline for delivering standard documents |
| Standards - Deadline for submitting data models | Milestone | The deadline describes when the data model must be ready for publication in the standard; a complete pr must exist by that date. |
| Quality Gate 2 | Phase | A second quality gate (“quality gate II”) thus ensures that only standard candidates that correspond to the quality expectations of Catena-X are being released. During quality gate II, the maturity of the standard is being verified and, provided a green light is given, a technical recommendation for its release is made to the Executive Board. The quality gate criteria are depicted in the annex. |
| Start Opt-Out for standard candidates | Milestone | Beginning of the Opt-Out phase. |
| Opt-Out | Phase | After a formal approval, an opt-out period of 45 days is required, during which all association members have to be presented with the standard candidates ahead of their official release to the public. After the 45-day opt-out period has passed, the Executive Board is presented the standard candidates again for a final approval for publication, marking their official transition from being a standard candidate into an official Catena-X standard. |
| End Opt-Out | Milestone | End of the Opt-Out Phase |
| FOSS Phase | Phase | The FOSS phase comprises the development of the software in the context of Tractus-X. These components are implemented by dedicated product teams, each responsible for specific functional units. Once development is complete, the phase concludes with a final integration and a comprehensive end-to-end testing process to ensure interoperability and system readiness. |
| Development Phase | Phase | During this phase, teams are allocated dedicated time to develop and contribute to FOSS components that are part of the overall ecosystem. |
| Opt-In/Opt-Out of the test phase | Milestone | This milestone marks the point at which all teams intending to participate in the upcoming release must create their Release Check Issue. By doing so, they formally indicate their commitment to contribute to the release and provide initial information on their planned deliverables. |
| Briefing Testing | Milestone/Meeting | The briefing session provides a detailed guidance on roles, responsibilities, and deadlines for the testing phase, ensuring that everyone involved understands their tasks and deliverables. The Briefing Testing is an open Tractus-X meeting. Details and access can be found here: Briefing Testing. |
| Feature Freeze | Milestone | The Feature Freeze marks a milestone in the release process, at which point no further development of new features or functionality is permitted for this release. This ensures system stability and allows teams to focus exclusively on integration, testing, and defect resolution in preparation for the release. |
| INT Deployment | Phase | In this phase, the release candidates have to be deployed on INT. |
| Kick-Off Testing | Milestone/Meeting | Meeting at the start of E2E test phase in the regular daily slot at 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. The Kick-Off Testing is an open Tractus-X meeting. Details and access can be found here: Kick-Off Testing. |
| Testing Phase | Phase | In this phase, tests are executed and status is reported consistently by the product teams in daily meetings from 8:30 - 9:00 a.m. CET |
| KIT Phase | Phase | KITs are available to everyone as part of the Eclipse Tractus-X open-source project, which facilitates participation in the design and development of KITs. The KIT phase comprises the development of the KITs in the context of Tractus-X. |
| KIT initial PR | Milestone | KIT creators are responsible for preparing and submitting an initial pull request. This contribution serves as the formal entry point of the KITs into the broader ecosystem and ensures visibility, traceability, and alignment with the open-source contribution process. |
| KIT final PR | Milestone | To Dos for KIT Reviewer: - Approve final pull request. - If necessary, give feedback asap, at the latest within 1 week. - Merge pull request after reviews / approvals |
Release Closing Phase - Milestones and Phases
The Release Closing Phase marks the finalization and publication of the release. This phase ensures that all outputs are complete, verified, and properly documented for both internal and external stakeholders.
Key activities include:
- Final review of all roadmap items, sub-issues, and standardization outputs,
- Completion of end-to-end testing and resolution of any remaining defects,
- Preparation of release notes, changelogs, and documentation, and
- Conducting a release recap or retrospective, summarizing achievements, lessons learned, and insights for future cycles.
This phase ensures transparency, traceability, and quality assurance, providing confidence to all participating teams and external partners that the release meets the agreed standards and objectives.
| Name | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Release Finalization | Phase | During this phase, all necessary activities to ensure a smooth and transparent release are carried out. For Tractus-X, this includes the preparation of the changelog and a review of the Release Check Issues. Any outstanding questions are clarified directly with the respective product teams. In the Catena-X context, detailed Release Notes are created, and the Deployment Gate is executed to formally authorize the release for deployment. |
| Publish Release | Milestone | The release will be published. |
| Recap Release | Milestone | This meeting provides a comprehensive presentation of the release outcomes, including a live system demonstration to showcase the functional and technical progress achieved. |