This month marks our first release since launching the Community Edition of Semaphore. We’re calling it version 1.1, and our main goal was to test our release process for the open-source edition. Since this was our first time coordinating a structured release cycle for the Community Edition, we kept the scope focused on smaller but meaningful improvements.
To share our progress and keep the community informed, we’re starting a monthly roundup of changes, learnings, and upcoming work.
🆕 Version 1.1: What’s New
For our first update after launch, we wanted to establish a reliable cadence for future releases. While we deploy our cloud platform continuously, we’re now experimenting with scheduled, versioned updates for the on-premise Community Edition.
Version 1.1 includes several quality-of-life improvements, bug fixes, and some groundwork for the Enterprise Edition we’re developing in parallel.
Community Edition: Quality-of-Life Improvements
A key goal for this release was to improve the day-to-day experience of developers using Semaphore. A few long-requested updates made it in:
✅ Clearer Timestamps
We updated how timestamps are displayed throughout the application. Instead of relative times like “4 hours ago,” you’ll now see precise dates and times, making it a bit easier to track when events occurred.
📝 Improved YAML Editor
We’ve replaced our basic YAML editor with Monaco (the editor powering VS Code). This brings several practical improvements:
- Schema-aware linting
- Highlighting for syntax and structural issues
- Support for themes (dark mode coming soon)
- A foundation for future UX improvements
👁️ Better Job Status Visibility
We improved the visual indicators for job status on job pages, making it easier to quickly see if a job has passed or failed when viewing it directly.
📦 Starter Templates
We now include a small set of ready-to-go starter templates. While they may not fit every project out of the box, they’re a helpful reference for getting started. We’ll expand this list over time based on community feedback.
🛠️ Behind the Scenes: Enterprise Edition Foundations
The Enterprise Edition expands Semaphore’s functionality with additional features designed for larger teams and organizations. While most of our work happens in the open, Enterprise includes advanced capabilities under a commercial license.
In March, we made big steps towards finalising the Enterprise Edition as a source-available product. The code now lives in the main repository, with services like:
- Velocity: metrics and pipeline insights
- Audit: detailed logging and activity tracking
- RBAC improvements: advanced role-based access control
These updates lay the groundwork for the expanded functionality we’ll introduce soon—including a new self-serve tier of the Enterprise Edition, launching in April 🤞.
🐛 Bug Fixes
No release is complete without squashing a few bugs. Highlights from 1.1 include:
- Fixed broken scheduler support for periodic tasks
- Resolved issues with GitLab integration and caching of GitHub apps
- Improved error handling for credentials and pipeline cleanup
🙌 First Community Contributions
We were happy to receive our first two contributions from the community:
- @d4rky-pl fixed an annoying UX issue where status dots were being selected during text highlighting
- @Uaitt corrected a typo on the login screen — small but important!
These contributions reminded us why open source matters. Thank you both!
In April, we’ll improve our contributor experience with better documentation, easier onboarding, and a set of “good first issues” for anyone who wants to help.
🔁 Release Ownership
Each month, a different engineer on our team takes charge of the release and implementation of the monthly Community Edition scope.
Pedro (@forestileao) managed the March release and shared this perspective:
“Working on open source is different. Knowing your code might help someone solve a real problem adds extra motivation to the work.”
We rotate this responsibility to give everyone experience with shipping a complete version of Semaphore. It helps us identify process bottlenecks and keeps knowledge spread across the team.
🔮 What’s Next: April and Beyond
April’s release will be led by Nick and will focus on one of our most-requested features:
🔓 Git-Agnostic Integration
We’re decoupling Semaphore from specific providers like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket. Soon, you’ll be able to connect any Git source into your workflows.
Other improvements we’re exploring include
- Real pagination on branch history (a deceptively tricky challenge)
- Allowing the root user to reset passwords in Community Edition
- More visual refinements and improved workflow consistency
You can follow our progress in the public roadmap and suggest features or report bugs at any time.
📣 Let’s Build Together
We’re building Semaphore out in the open, and every bit of feedback helps us improve. Check out the repo, join the discussion, and tell us what you’d like to see next.
Thanks to everyone who tried out version 1.1, contributed fixes, or sent in ideas. We’re just getting started.
See you in the next roundup!
The post Semaphore March Release Roundup: Building in the Open appeared first on Semaphore.
