Edition registry

Each entry lists the components added by that edition, which also permits every component from earlier editions in the same family. See Using editions for configuration and Versioning design for the compatibility rules.

Frozen core editions

The origin of every edition below is vortex. Each minimum refers to the shared version of the Vortex Rust crates, including the vortex crate.

core2025.05.0

Minimum Vortex Rust crate version: 0.36.0.

• array: fastlanes.bitpacked, fastlanes.for, vortex.alp, vortex.alprd, vortex.bool, vortex.bytebool, vortex.chunked, vortex.constant, vortex.datetimeparts, vortex.decimal, vortex.decimal_byte_parts, vortex.dict, vortex.ext, vortex.fsst, vortex.list, vortex.null, vortex.primitive, vortex.runend, vortex.sparse, vortex.struct, vortex.varbin, vortex.varbinview, vortex.zigzag

• layout: vortex.chunked, vortex.dict, vortex.flat, vortex.stats, vortex.struct

• dtype: vortex.date, vortex.time, vortex.timestamp

core2025.06.0

Minimum Vortex Rust crate version: 0.40.0.

• array: vortex.pco, vortex.sequence, vortex.zstd

core2025.10.0

Minimum Vortex Rust crate version: 0.54.0.

• array: fastlanes.rle, vortex.fixed_size_list, vortex.listview, vortex.masked

core2026.08.0

Minimum Vortex Rust crate version: 0.84.0.

• layout: vortex.zoned

• aggregate: vortex.bounded_max, vortex.bounded_min, vortex.max, vortex.min, vortex.nan_count, vortex.null_count

core2026.08.1

Minimum Vortex Rust crate version: 0.84.0.

• array: vortex.onpair

core2026.08.2

Minimum Vortex Rust crate version: 0.85.0.

• array: vortex.map

core2026.08.3

Minimum Vortex Rust crate version: 0.85.0.

• array: vortex.parquet.variant, vortex.variant

• dtype: vortex.uuid

Draft editions

Draft editions have no recorded minimum version of their origin project’s code, and each new format or revision requires a new draft edition. Vortex-maintained draft formats are expected to remain compatible unless a defect blocks promotion into core, while independent plugin projects state their own policy.

unstable

• array: fastlanes.bitpacked.v2, fastlanes.delta, fastlanes.for.v2, vortex.decimal_byte_parts.v2, vortex.patched, vortex.union

• layout: vortex.list

• aggregate: vortex.bloom_filter.sbbf, vortex.sum_v2

This edition is undated and never freezes. Its members change in place. The list layout is distinct from the vortex.list array encoding already in core.

preview2026.08.0

This edition currently adds no components.

tensor2026.04.0

• array: vortex.tensor.cosine_similarity, vortex.tensor.inner_product, vortex.tensor.l2_norm, vortex.tensor.l2_normalize

• dtype: vortex.tensor.fixed_shape_tensor, vortex.tensor.vector

zstd2026.02.0

• array: vortex.zstd_buffers

spatial2026.08.0

• dtype: vortex.st.box, vortex.st.linestring, vortex.st.multilinestring, vortex.st.multipoint, vortex.st.multipolygon, vortex.st.point, vortex.st.polygon, vortex.st.wkb

• aggregate: vortex.st.aabb

json2026.08.0

• dtype: vortex.json

Component checks

The writer checks the formats it actually serializes against the selected editions. The checks cover four kinds of component:

Kind	Writing rule
Arrays	Check the serializer’s returned wire ID and every serialized child recursively.
Layouts	Check every serialized layout ID. The writing strategy must use permitted layouts.
Extension dtypes	Check all extension dtypes in the schema, including nested ones, before writing bytes.
Aggregate functions	Check every function stored in a zone map against the edition and its format contract.

A forbidden zone-map aggregate causes the write to fail. Silently omitting it would change which filters can use the configured zone map to skip rows. By contrast, the writer omits an aggregate that does not apply to a column’s data type, so there is no serialized component to check.

For example, core2026.08.0 declares min, max, bounded_min, bounded_max, nan_count, and null_count. Zone maps do not store sums, so the edition does not declare sum. File-level statistics, however, do store sums, in a fixed legacy field governed by the enclosing format’s contract.

Aggregate serialization support alone does not make an aggregate an edition member. Editions declare aggregate IDs intended for persisted zone maps. The all_* aggregates are in-memory pruning predicates and do not need entries. Legacy file statistics also do not need entries.

Format testing and promotion

A format intended for core starts in the shared unstable edition. This edition is undated, has no recorded min_library_version, and never freezes, so it gives no compatibility guarantee. Even at this stage, the format is expected to be complete. If testing reveals a defect whose correction changes what readers must understand, the correction needs a new wire ID. Replace the defective ID with its successor in the unstable declaration, for example vortex.foo with vortex.foo_v2.

After initial testing, the format can enter a new preview edition for broader opt-in use, then a later core edition for default use. Promotion changes which editions permit the format while preserving its contract and wire ID. The unstable and preview editions are registered but must be enabled explicitly. The current preview edition is empty, so its first component must go into a new edition.

Freezing an edition

A stable edition can freeze when its origin publishes the code that first supports all its members. For core, this is a Vortex Rust crate release. Independent plugins use their own versions.

Until the release version is known, the declaration uses min_library_version: None. Once it is known, the field records the first release that supports all members, usually while the next release is in development. Recording the version documents the freeze, but the guarantee applies from that release even if the declaration is updated later.

A frozen edition’s membership, origin, and minimum version stay fixed. Deprecating a format can stop writers from choosing it, but readers must retain support because existing files can contain it.

Maintaining edition records

Default declarations live in vortex-edition/src/declarations/. Optional modules keep declarations with their implementation code. The exported TOML records are under vortex/editions/, grouped by family. The undated unstable edition never freezes, so it has no record; only its family.toml is exported.

1. For a new core-maintained component, add it to the unstable edition. Optional modules use their own families. For a revision in unstable, replace the earlier ID with its successor. For a revision in another family, add a later edition to the family that owns the earlier ID.

2. To promote a tested format, add it to new preview and core editions without changing its ID or contract.

3. When an edition freezes, record the first release of its origin that supports every permitted component, including inherited members.

4. Regenerate the records:

   cargo run -p xtask -- generate-editions
   

CI’s check-editions command rejects changes to frozen records, including renames, unfreezing, and deletion, so changes to permitted wire formats require a later edition. The command also rejects a new edition that does not follow its family’s chronology.