Release names

Every Nexium release is a place on a mountain. A major version is a mountain, taken in the order the fourteen 8000-metre peaks were first climbed; the versions under it are the climb of that mountain: its camps, routes and faces for minor versions, the members of its first-ascent expedition for patch versions, and Summit for X.0.0. The 0.x line is the approach and the camps of the first mountain, so 1.0.0 is standing on top of the mountain the project has been on since 0.1.0. Decision 89 in DECISIONS.md records the rule; this file is the reference, the ledger, and the plan.

How to read a name#

nx 0.7.0 (Annapurna: Camp V)
nx 1.0.0 (Annapurna: Summit)
nx 1.1.0 (Annapurna: Dutch Rib)
nx 2.0.0 (Everest: Summit)
nx 2.1.0 (Everest: Khumbu Icefall)

The mountain says which major line you are on; the place says how far up it is and what kind of release it was. The version number still carries the ordering; the name carries the character.

The rule#

• Major = mountain. 0.x and 1.x are Annapurna (first 8000-metre peak climbed, 1950); 2.x Everest (1953), 3.x Nanga Parbat (1953), 4.x K2 (1954), 5.x Cho Oyu (1954), 6.x Makalu (1955), 7.x Kangchenjunga (1955), 8.x Manaslu (1956), 9.x Lhotse (1956), 10.x Gasherbrum II (1956), 11.x Broad Peak (1957), 12.x Gasherbrum I (1958), 13.x Dhaulagiri (1960), 14.x Shishapangma (1964). After the 8000ers come the Seven Summits, then the great north faces of the Alps; a range after those is a new decision.
• X.0.0 is Mountain: Summit.
• Minor = a place on the mountain: a camp, a route, a face, a col, a feature. Each place below says what kind of release it fits. Short names: Camp V, not the Sickle Glacier Couloir.
• Patch = a person from the mountain's first-ascent expedition. Roster order by default, so nothing is forced onto a bug-fix release; when a patch plainly fits one person's story (a rescue, a removal, a documentation patch), take that one. When the roster runs out, the later climbers of that mountain follow.
• 0.x are the approach and the camps of the first climb; if there are more minor releases than camps, the features of the summit route follow.
• The name fits the release; the release is never shaped to fit a name.

How to pick#

1. Write the changelog section first. The release's character is in it.
2. Find the place on the current mountain whose "use it for" matches; two candidates is fine, pick the shorter name.
3. For a patch, take the next unused person on the roster unless one clearly fits.
4. Put the name and one line of why under the version header, update the ledger here, and mark the pool entry used.

Where the name appears#

• CHANGELOG.md: the first line under the version header, in italics, with the reason after an em dash:

``` ## [0.7.0] - 2026-09-19

Annapurna: Camp V — the last camp, at 7,400 m; the summit push starts here. ```

(patchnotes validates the header and ignores the line; the release script reads it.)

• The GitHub release title and the tag message: Nexium v0.7.0 — Annapurna: Camp V (scripts/release_notes.py writes the title).
• nx version and nx doctor: nx 0.7.0 (Annapurna: Camp V); the name is RELEASE_NAME in self/nx.nx, set by the release commit with the version.

Ledger#

The plan#

Names pencilled in for the releases the roadmap describes. A plan is a plan: if a release turns out to be something else, it takes the name that fits and the pencilled one goes back in the pool.

The pools#

Names to draw from, mountain by mountain, in the order the mountains are used. Each place says what it was and what kind of release to use it for; each person says who they were and what kind of patch fits. The histories are the standard accounts, and a wrong detail here is fixed in this file.

Recurring kinds, so the glosses stay short: groundwork (CI, build, infrastructure), consolidation (nothing new, everything tidier), headline (the release people will remember), hard crux (small, difficult, unavoidable), course change (a removal or a reversed decision), traverse (many platforms or targets), side line (a tool or library beside the main one), recovery (fixes what the last one broke), candidate (the release before a major).

Annapurna, 8,091 m (0.x and 1.x)#

First ascent 3 June 1950 by Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, French expedition, by the North Face; the first 8000-metre peak climbed, on the first attempt, without a prior reconnaissance of the mountain. Both summiters lost fingers and toes on the descent.

Everest, 8,849 m (2.x)#

First ascent 29 May 1953 by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, British expedition led by John Hunt, by the South Col route.

Nanga Parbat, 8,126 m (3.x)#

First ascent 3 July 1953 by Hermann Buhl, alone on the summit day, without oxygen, from a German-Austrian expedition led by Karl Herrligkoffer, by the Rakhiot Face. Thirty-one people had died on earlier attempts.

K2, 8,611 m (4.x)#

First ascent 31 July 1954 by Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni, Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio, by the Abruzzi Spur. Walter Bonatti and the Hunza porter Amir Mahdi carried the oxygen to 8,100 m and survived a night in the open to do it.

Cho Oyu, 8,188 m (5.x)#

First ascent 19 October 1954 by Herbert Tichy, Joseph Jöchler and Pasang Dawa Lama: a three-climber expedition, the first 8000er climbed after the monsoon and the smallest team to climb one. Tichy's hands were frostbitten before the summit push and he went anyway.

Makalu, 8,485 m (6.x)#

First ascent 15 May 1955 by Lionel Terray and Jean Couzy, French expedition led by Jean Franco; every member of the team reached the summit over the following two days, the first time an 8000er's whole expedition did.

Kangchenjunga, 8,586 m (7.x)#

First ascent 25 May 1955 by Joe Brown and George Band, British expedition led by Charles Evans, from the Yalung Glacier. They stopped a few steps below the top, as promised to the ruler of Sikkim, and every ascent since has done the same: the summit is left untrodden.

Manaslu, 8,163 m (8.x)#

First ascent 9 May 1956 by Toshio Imanishi and Gyalzen Norbu, Japanese expedition led by Yuko Maki; a second pair, Kiichiro Kato and Minoru Higeta, followed two days later.

Lhotse, 8,516 m (9.x)#

First ascent 18 May 1956 by Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger, Swiss expedition led by Albert Eggler, which made the second and third ascents of Everest the same week.

Gasherbrum II, 8,035 m (10.x)#

First ascent 7 July 1956 by Fritz Moravec, Josef Larch and Hans Willenpart, Austrian expedition, after an open bivouac at 7,500 m.

Broad Peak, 8,051 m (11.x)#

First ascent 9 June 1957 by Marcus Schmuck, Fritz Wintersteller, Kurt Diemberger and Hermann Buhl: four climbers, no oxygen, no high-altitude porters, the first 8000er climbed in what became alpine style. Buhl died three weeks later on Chogolisa.

Gasherbrum I (Hidden Peak), 8,080 m (12.x)#

First ascent 5 July 1958 by Pete Schoening and Andy Kauffman, American expedition led by Nick Clinch. In 1975 Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler climbed it in pure alpine style, the first 8000er done that way.

Dhaulagiri, 8,167 m (13.x)#

First ascent 13 May 1960 by Kurt Diemberger, Peter Diener, Ernst Forrer, Albin Schelbert, Nyima Dorje and Nawang Dorje, Swiss-Austrian expedition led by Max Eiselin, supplied by a Pilatus Porter aircraft that landed on the mountain at 5,700 m and was wrecked there before the summit: the only 8000er climbed with an aeroplane. Herzog's 1950 expedition had reconnoitred it first and given up, which is how they came to Annapurna.

Shishapangma, 8,027 m (14.x)#

First ascent 2 May 1964 by a Chinese expedition led by Xu Jing: ten climbers on the summit, the last 8000er climbed, and the only one entirely inside Tibet.

After the 8000ers: the Seven Summits (15.x to 20.x)#

The highest peak on each continent, in this order.

People: Zurbriggen; Stuck, Karstens, Harper (first on the summit), Tatum; Meyer, Purtscheller; Khashirov; Grove, Gardiner, Walker, Knubel; Clinch; Harrer. Everest is used by 2.x; Mont Blanc, 4,808 m (Paccard and Balmat, 1786), opens the Alps.

After those: the great north faces of the Alps (21.x onward)#

People: Heckmair, Vörg, Harrer, Kasparek; Whymper; the Schmid brothers; Cassin, Esposito, Tizzoni; Comici; Allain, Leininger; Bonatti.