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A release is a version of your code deployed to an environment. Telling Sentry about your releases unlocks several features: suspect commits, source map association, release health monitoring, and regression detection.

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What a release contains

From the source model: 
# src/sentry/models/release.py
class Release(Model):
    """
    A release is generally created when a new version is pushed into a
    production state.
    """
    organization = FlexibleForeignKey("sentry.Organization")
    projects = models.ManyToManyField("sentry.Project", through=ReleaseProject)
    version = models.CharField(max_length=DB_VERSION_LENGTH)
    ref = models.CharField(max_length=DB_VERSION_LENGTH, null=True)  # branch name
    url = models.URLField(null=True)
    date_added = models.DateTimeField(default=timezone.now)
    date_released = models.DateTimeField(null=True)
    commit_count = BoundedPositiveIntegerField(null=True, default=0)
    authors = ArrayField(models.TextField(), default=list, null=True)
    total_deploys = BoundedPositiveIntegerField(null=True, default=0)
A release belongs to one organization and can span multiple projects. The version field is any string you choose — a git SHA, a semantic version tag, or a build number.

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Tagging events with a release

Set the release option in the SDK to attach events to a release: 
import sentry_sdk

sentry_sdk.init(
    dsn="https://<public_key>@o<org_id>.ingest.sentry.io/<project_id>",
    release="[email protected]",
    environment="production",
)
Use the format <package>@<version> for semantic versioning. Sentry parses semver-formatted versions and stores major, minor, patch, revision, and prerelease columns for filtering and comparison.

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Creating a release

You must explicitly create a release in Sentry before or shortly after deploying. There are three ways to do this:

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sentry-cli

# Install the CLI
npm install -g @sentry/cli
# or: pip install sentry-cli

# Create the release and associate commits from the current git repo
sentry-cli releases new [email protected]
sentry-cli releases set-commits [email protected] --auto

# Notify Sentry that the release was deployed
sentry-cli releases deploys [email protected] new --env production

# Finalize the release
sentry-cli releases finalize [email protected]

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API

curl https://sentry.io/api/0/organizations/<org_slug>/releases/ \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer <auth_token>' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "version": "[email protected]",
    "refs": [{
      "repository": "my-org/my-repo",
      "commit": "a1b2c3d4"
    }],
    "projects": ["my-project"]
  }'

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CI/CD integration

Sentry provides official GitHub Actions and GitLab CI integrations. Example using GitHub Actions: 
# .github/workflows/release.yml
- name: Create Sentry release
  uses: getsentry/action-release@v1
  env:
    SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN }}
    SENTRY_ORG: my-org
    SENTRY_PROJECT: my-project
  with:
    environment: production
    version: ${{ github.sha }}

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Release health

Release health tracks crash-free rates and adoption across your user base. Sentry calculates:
  • Crash-free session rate — the percentage of sessions that did not end in a crash
  • Crash-free user rate — the percentage of users who did not experience a crash
  • Adoption — the percentage of your user base running each release version
Release health requires the SDK to send session data. Most SDKs enable this automatically when you initialize with a release and environment.

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Suspect commits

When an issue is first seen in a release that has associated commits, Sentry uses blame information to identify the commit most likely responsible for the regression. This appears on the issue detail page under Suspect Commits. To enable suspect commits:
  1. Connect a source code integration (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) in Organization Settings → Integrations.
  2. Associate commits when creating releases using sentry-cli releases set-commits or the refs field in the API.

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Source maps

For JavaScript projects, upload source maps when creating a release so that Sentry can display original (un-minified) stack frames: 
sentry-cli releases files [email protected] upload-sourcemaps ./dist \
  --url-prefix '~/static/js'

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Release status

Releases have an open or archived status: 
# src/sentry/models/release.py
class ReleaseStatus:
    OPEN = 0
    ARCHIVED = 1
Archiving a release hides it from release lists and health dashboards without deleting associated events. You can archive releases from the Releases page in the UI or via the API.

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