Managing Skaffold versions

Google Cloud Deploy uses Skaffold, through Cloud Build, to deploy your application by rendering and deploying manifests.

The page describes how Google Cloud Deploy selects what version of Skaffold to use, how often the version changes, and how to find out the current version.

What version of Skaffold does Google Cloud Deploy use?

The version of Skaffold that Google Cloud Deploy uses when rendering and deploying is the most recent of Skaffold's publicly available versions that Google Cloud Deploy supports.

Note: the Skaffold version associated with a release is used for the entire lifecycle of that release, and cannot be changed during that lifetime. The release lifecycle consists of all render and deploy operations on that release up to deployment into the final target in the progression, and beyond (any rollbacks or re-deployments).

Supported versions

Skaffold version	Max schema version	As-of date	Default?
1.37.1 (release notes)	v2beta28	May 6, 2022	✓
1.35.2 (release notes)	v2beta26	January 10, 2021
1.24.0 (release notes)	v2beta16	–

Support for new versions is announced in Google Cloud Deploy release notes.

Find out the Skaffold version associated with a release

You can find the version Google Cloud Deploy is using at any given time by running the following command:

gcloud deploy releases describe RELEASE --delivery-pipeline=DELIVERY_PIPELINE --region=REGION

The version is shown in the skaffoldVersion attribute in the output.

How Google Cloud Deploy selects new versions

A new version of Skaffold is selected every 90 days. At the end of that 90-day cycle, Google Cloud adds support for a new Skaffold version. That version is now supported for use with Google Cloud Deploy, and it becomes the default version used to create and manage all releases for the next 90-day cycle.

Google Cloud Deploy release notes are updated to announce each newly supported release.

Skaffold version deprecation and maintenance policy

Skaffold versions are supported for 12 months, with a two-month maintenance period. This maintenance period means that releases tied to a version are still supported for two months after support for that version has expired, and you can still create rollouts from those releases.

After the two-month period, you can no longer create a rollout from a release that uses the unsupported Skaffold version. However, all data associated with the release remains.

What's next

• Read more about integrating Google Cloud Deploy with other systems.

• Find out more about how Skaffold works with Google Cloud Deploy and how to make it work well for you.

• The document Managing manifests in Google Cloud Deploy describes more about how you can use Skaffold, including with other, third-party manifest-management tools.