Cut v2.2.0 Release on February 17, 2026

[adamwg]

This issue can be closed when we have completed the following steps (in order).
Please ensure all artifacts (PRs, workflow runs, Tweets, etc) are linked from
this issue for posterity. Refer to this prior release issue for
examples of each step, assuming release v2.2.0 is being cut.

Code Freeze (February 9, 2026)

• Determine if any patch releases are needed in addition to this main release and open a new patch release issue for each.
• [In Crossplane Runtime]: Prepared the release branch release-2.2:
  • Confirm that all security/critical dependency update PRs from Renovate are merged into main
    • https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane-runtime/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aopen+label%3Aautomated
  • Created the release branch using the GitHub UI.
  • (On the Main Branch) Created and merged a PR to add the new release branch to the baseBranches list in .github/renovate.json5.
  • (On the Main Branch) Run the Tag workflow with the release candidate tag for the next release v2.3.0-rc.0. Message suggested, but not required: Release candidate v2.3.0-rc.0.
  • (On the Release Branch) Run the Tag workflow with the release candidate tag for the next release v2.2.0-rc.1 (assuming the latest rc tag for v2.2.0 is v2.2.0-rc.0). Message suggested, but not required: Release candidate v2.2.0-rc.1.
• [In Core Crossplane]: Prepared the release branch release-2.2:
  • Confirm that all security/critical dependency update PRs from Renovate are merged into main
    • https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aopen+label%3Aautomated
  • Created the release branch using the GitHub UI.
  • (On the Main Branch) created and merged a PR bumping the Crossplane Runtime dependency to the release candidate tag on main, v2.3.0-rc.0.
  • (On the Release Branch) created and merged a PR bumping the Crossplane Runtime dependency to the release candidate tag on the release branch, v2.2.0-rc.1.
  • (On the Main Branch) Run the Tag workflow with the release candidate tag for the next release, v2.3.0-rc.0. Message suggested, but not required: Release candidate v2.3.0-rc.0.
  • (On the Main Branch) created and merged a PR to add the new release branch to the baseBranches list in .github/renovate.json5.
• [In Core Crossplane]: Cut a Crossplane release candidate from the release branch release-2.2:
  • (On the Release Branch) Run the Tag workflow with the release candidate tag for the release v2.2.0-rc.1 (assuming the latest rc tag for v2.2.0 is v2.2.0-rc.0). Message suggested but not required: Release candidate v2.2.0-rc.1.
  • (On the Release Branch) Run the CI workflow and verified that the tagged build version exists on the releases.crossplane.io build channel, e.g. build/release-2.2/v2.2.0-rc.1/... should contain all the relevant binaries.
  • (On the Release Branch) Run the Promote workflow with version v2.2.0-rc.1 and channel stable, ticking the box for This is a pre-release and verify:
    • The tagged build version exists on the releases.crossplane.io stable channel at stable/v2.2.0-rc.1/....
    • Ensured that the release candidate is visible on the stable helm repo with: helm repo add crossplane-stable https://charts.crossplane.io/stable --force-update && helm search repo crossplane-stable --devel.
  • Published a new release for the tagged version as pre-release, with the same name as the version, taking care of generating the changes list selecting as "Previous tag" v2.1.0, so the first of the releases for the previous minor.
    • Select the Set as a pre-release and Create a discussion for this release checkboxes.
    • Do NOT select the Set as the latest release checkbox.
    • Use this example
      for the body of the release.
  • Ensured that users have been notified about the release candidate on the #announcement channel of the Crossplane's Slack workspace.

Release (February 17, 2026)

• Opened a docs release issue
  • v1.20 will continue being supported, so remove any steps in the docs release process that remove v1.20 docs. v1.20 docs should not be deleted!
• Checked that the GitHub milestone for this release only contains closed issues.
• Cut a Crossplane Runtime version and consume it from Crossplane.
  • [In Crossplane Runtime]:
    • Run the Tag workflow on the release-2.2 branch with the proper release version, v2.2.0. Message suggested, but not required: Release v2.2.0.
    • Published a new release for the tagged version, with the same name as the version, taking care of generating the changes list selecting as "Previous tag" v2.1.0, so the first of the releases for the previous minor.
      - [ ] Update the baseBranches list in .github/renovate.json5 on main, removing the now old unsupported release.
  • [In Core Crossplane]: (On the Release Branch) Update the Crossplane Runtime dependency to v2.2.0.
• (On the Release Branch) Run the Tag workflow with the proper release version, v2.2.0. Message suggested, but not required: Release v2.2.0.
• (On the Release Branch) Run the CI workflow and verified that the tagged build version exists on the releases.crossplane.io build channel, e.g. build/release-2.2/v2.2.0/... should contain all the relevant binaries.
• (On the Release Branch) Run the Promote workflow with channel stable and verified that the tagged build version exists on the releases.crossplane.io stable channel at stable/v2.2.0/....
• Select a release MVP from the community that had significant impact on the release and include recognition of them in the release notes and blog post.
• Published a new release for the tagged version, with the same name as the version and descriptive release notes
  • generate the changes list by selecting the "Previous tag" as v2.1.0, i.e., the first of the releases for the previous minor.
  • Ensure the release MVP is recognized in the release notes.
  • Before publishing the release notes, set them as Draft and ask the rest of the team to double check them.
• Checked that the docs release issue created previously has been completed.
• Updated, in a single PR, the following on main:
  • The releases table in the README.md, adding the new release version date as well as coarse dates for the next 3 releases, but keeping v1.20 in the table saying "TBD - critical fixes only"
    - [ ] The baseBranches list in .github/renovate.json5, removing the now old unsupported release.
• Closed the GitHub milestone for this release.
• Request @jbw976 to perform a CloudFront cache invalidation on https://charts.crossplane.io/stable/ and https://releases.crossplane.io/stable/
  - [ ] Publish a blog post about the release to the crossplane blog
  - [ ] Ensure the release MVP is recognized in the blog post
• Ensured that users have been notified of the release on all communication channels:
  • Slack: #announcements channel on Crossplane's Slack workspace.
  • Twitter: reach out to a Crossplane maintainer or steering committee member, see OWNERS.md.
  • Bluesky: same as Twitter
  • LinkedIn: same as Twitter
• Request @jbw976 to remove all old docs versions from Google Search (we're keeping the v1.20 docs alive)
• Remove any extra permissions given to release team members for this release

[jbw976]

@adamwg I updated the checkbox item for the c/c readme releases table - we should still update the v1.20 entry to remove the EOL date and say "TBD - critical fixes only". That task was struck out, but I undid that so we still follow up 😇

[jbw976]

Checklist is complete now, closing this issue out. Thanks @adamwg for leading a successful v2.2 release! 🙇‍♂️