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Please keep the discussion on the mailing list rather than commenting on the wiki (wiki discussions get unwieldy fast).

Motivation

Since Before Kafka 2.8.0 all features seemed to be released without any type of qualification into the project. During 2.8.0 it was the first time that a feature was released with "early access". This was done in the context of KRaft as a replacement for ZooKeeper (https://lists.apache.org/thread/m16d7om3lry70zw9b1t6fyw99tlppkd3). However, we never really defined what "early access" meant, for the developers nor for the end users.

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This level is optional, and a feature must does not need to go through it in order to reach the latest next level.

Level 3

Mildly complex features might reach this level directly from level 1, while more complex ones would reach it from level 2.

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A new page in the documentation page will be created containing the agreed graduation steps for features and the implications for each of them. This new page should be under "Key Concepts" (also known as "Getting Started") in its own section. Right now it would be "1.7 Graduation Steps for Features".

How to track level changes

KIPs that require to go through the different graduation levels, must include a new section (Graduation Steps Log) containing the change log for the graduation steps and their date/release.

When preparing a release plan, the release manager should look at this section to capture the KIPs state.

If the KIP changes graduation step while a release is being prepared, the driver of the KIP should communicate this in the release thread.

Each graduation step can be stated by the developer "owning" the KIP. The developer might decide to seek consensus via a VOTE thread to promote to level 3 and 4.

Compatibility, Deprecation, and Migration Plan

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