Openhandle API versioning and deprecation

Compatibility rules and retirement notices for the Openhandle API.

The public REST API uses URL versioning: current operations start with /v1/. The info.version field in OpenAPI identifies the document release. It does not select a different API version.

Compatibility

Breaking contract changes use a new major URL version. Examples include removing a documented field or changing its type. Clients should ignore unknown response fields so additive fields can be introduced within a major version. Additional endpoints can also be introduced without changing existing endpoints.

Source platforms can change availability or stop exposing data. A platform failure or an unknown metric is not an API version change. Continue handling the documented error codes and nullable metrics.

Deprecation and retirement

Version 1 has no announced retirement date. A deprecation notice will identify the affected version or operations, a replacement, migration steps, and any scheduled retirement date in this documentation. Deprecation means an operation is discouraged; sunset means it is scheduled to stop responding.

No fixed minimum notice period is currently promised. Review the published notice for the affected operation before planning a migration. Contact hello@openhandle.dev with compatibility questions.

For automated monitoring, the standards define Deprecation as a Structured Field date and Sunset as an HTTP date. A Link with rel="deprecation" can identify migration documentation. These headers are only relevant when a resource has an actual deprecation or retirement announcement. Active v1 operations do not emit artificial retirement dates.

See RFC 9745 and RFC 8594 for the header formats.

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