Tetragon is an eBPF tool for watching processes, files, and network activity on a Linux node, and for enforcing policies at runtime. A lot of teams run it from container images in Kubernetes.
If you run it, you eventually need to know when the next version comes out.
Until August 2026 the Tetragon docs did not really answer that. You could scroll the GitHub releases list and guess. You could also read Cilium's release cadence page, since the two projects share a GitHub organisation, and assume Tetragon followed the same calendar.
Cilium documents a full process: feature releases about every six months, freezes, release candidates, several stable branches, and patch releases that often land around the middle of the month. Tetragon does not work that way.
People had been reporting old packages in Tetragon images. Issue #4893 asked the project to write the actual schedule into the contribution guide. A maintainer replied on that issue with the rule the docs now use.
Minor releases (the X.Y.0 versions) come about every six months, similar to Cilium. Patch releases (the X.Y.Z versions) have no fixed calendar. They ship when users need fixes. Bug fixes and important package updates get backported onto the stable branches the project still maintains.
That text is now on tetragon.io, as Release cadence. I opened the pull request that added the page (#5409, merged 14 August 2026). The wording is from the issue thread.
Using it
If you pin Tetragon in a cluster, plan around the minor version. Pick an X.Y line and stay on it until you mean to move. Do not expect a patch every month. A quiet month usually means nothing urgent needed shipping, not that the project stalled.
When you need to know what actually went out, look at GitHub releases. When you need to know what is sitting on your nodes, look at your image scanner. If a scanner flags a package inside the image, the cadence page tells you the kind of fix to expect: a backport onto a maintained branch, then a patch when it is ready. It will not give you a date.
The phrase "similar to Cilium" on the Tetragon page is about that six-month minor rhythm. It is not about Cilium's freeze, release candidates, or mid-month patch train. Copying that calendar into a Tetragon runbook would be inventing a process the project did not document.
The page
The live page is three short paragraphs:
Tetragon minor releases (
X.Y.0) follow a roughly six-month schedule, similar to Cilium.Patch releases (
X.Y.Z) do not follow a fixed calendar. They are published on demand when users need fixes. Bug fixes are backported onto maintained stable branches (including updates of critical packages).Published releases are listed on the GitHub releases page.
If you want Cilium's calendar, read Cilium's page. If you want Tetragon's, start with the cadence page and then look at the releases list.
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