Next.js has two release channels: stable and canary.
The stable release is what is installed when you npm install next. This channel is used by the majority of Next.js users.
This channel is published at a regular cadence and follows semantic versioning.
Repository maintainers can publish a new stable version using: pnpm publish-stable.
The command will ask what version to publish major, minor, or patch.
The canary channel has to be explicitly installed by users through npm install next@canary.
This channel is published early based on the canary branch. It holds all changes that are waiting to be published to the stable channel.
canary is used to test the latest features and bugfixes on real-world applications.
By installing next@canary from time to time you can check if your application is affected by any changes that have not been published yet.
Repository maintainers can publish a new canary version using: pnpm publish-canary.
The command will automatically decide the new version tag as it's an increment from the previous version.