Node.js drops odd releases, moves to one major a year
From October 2026 Node.js ships one major a year instead of two, ends the odd/even split, and matches version numbers to the calendar. Node 26 is the last old-model release.
Node.js will cut its major releases from two a year to one starting this month, per the runtime's release-schedule announcement, retiring the odd/even split that has sorted its versions since 2015. Every future major becomes a long-term-support line, and the version number now tracks the calendar: 27.0.0 in 2027, 28.0.0 in 2028.
Node 26 is the last release of the old model. It shipped in April, enters LTS this month, and carries support to April 2029. Node 27 is the first of the new one: a six-month alpha from October, general availability in April 2027, LTS that October. The odd-numbered "Current" line does not survive, and its job, shipping breaking features early to anyone willing to run them, moves to that alpha channel, which states plainly that the API can change inside it.
The builder's read: if the upgrade policy already says LTS only, nothing changes except that the version number stops skipping. The teams that must move are the ones who ran an odd release in production for a feature not yet in LTS. That path is now the alpha channel, and it ships with a written warning, so it belongs in a test matrix rather than a deploy target.