Deprecation policy

The goal of the deprecation policy is to make sure that users are aware of what is changing and have time to adjust before a feature or an API component is dropped at a given planned date.

General principles

A backward-incompatible change or dropping of a public API endpoint, a workflow, or a feature is subject to the deprecation. Once deprecated, they will be removed in a future version:

• A deprecated feature can be dropped in the year following the year it was deprecated, after the new LTA, with a minimum of 6 months after deprecation.
  For example, a feature deprecated in the 2025.2 version is kept until the 2026.1 LTA (Long-Term Active) version and dropped in the 2026.2 version or later. 
• See below for deprecated Web API or Plugin API components.

Web API deprecation policy

The Web API deprecation policy states that:

• An API component must be deprecated before being dropped. Furthermore, if the underlying feature is not being dropped, a replacement component must immediately be provided.
• A deprecated API component must be fully supported until its drop (For instance the implementation of a deprecated method can't be replaced by throwing a new UnsupportedOperationException()).
• The API release cycle is tied to the SonarQube Server release cycle. 
• A deprecated API endpoint can be dropped in January of the year following the year it was deprecated, but not before 6 months after deprecation.

Plugin API deprecation policy

The Plugin API deprecation policy states that:

• An API component must be deprecated before being dropped. Furthermore, if the underlying feature is not being dropped, a replacement component must immediately be provided.
• A deprecated API component must be fully supported until its drop (For instance the implementation of a deprecated method can't be replaced by throwing a new UnsupportedOperationException()).
• The API is released independently of SonarQube Server (see the version compatibility matrix). 
• All breaking changes in the Plugin API must be preceded by a deprecation period of at least 2 years after the deprecation.

* /**
 * @deprecated in 4.2. Replaced by {@link #newMethod()}.
 */
@Deprecated
public void foo() {
...
}

Policy recommendations for API users

• Regularly monitor the deprecation of API components and check if you’re currently using them. See Monitoring the deprecated API components.
• If you're currently using deprecated API components:
  • Don't add new uses of it.
  • Make the necessary updates in your next few releases so you’re ready for any breaking changes after the next LTA(Long-Term Active) release.

Deprecation notice

Feature removals and deprecations are announced in the SonarQube Server release notes.

Plugin API deprecations are announced in the sonar-plugi-api GitHub repository.