generated: '2026-09-04'
method: searched
source: >-
  https://ballerina.io/downloads/swan-lake-release-notes/swan-lake-2201.13.5 and the dated
  release list at https://api.github.com/repos/ballerina-platform/ballerina-distribution/releases
provider: Ballerina
providerId: ballerina
description: >-
  Ballerina publishes per-version release notes on its own site under
  /downloads/swan-lake-release-notes/<version>, and every distribution release is dated on
  GitHub. What is recorded below is the LANGUAGE and DISTRIBUTION changelog. There is no
  changelog for the Ballerina Central REST API — the two should not be read as the same thing.
scheme:
  style: '2201.MINOR.PATCH — "Swan Lake Update <MINOR>" with numbered patch releases'
  semver: false
  note: >-
    2201 is a fixed prefix, not a major version; the meaningful line is the middle number
    (Update 13 = 2201.13.x). A legacy 1.2.x line is still patched in parallel.
  release_notes_url_pattern: https://ballerina.io/downloads/swan-lake-release-notes/swan-lake-{version}
  archived: https://ballerina.io/downloads/archived/
current:
  version: 2201.13.5
  released: '2026-07-27'
  url: https://ballerina.io/downloads/swan-lake-release-notes/swan-lake-2201.13.5
entries:
  - version: 2201.13.5
    date: '2026-07-27'
    kind: patch
    breaking: false
    highlights:
      - Fifth patch release of the 2201.13.0 line.
      - Compiler and runtime bug fixes.
      - Security improvements.
    upgrade: bal dist pull 2201.13.5
    url: https://ballerina.io/downloads/swan-lake-release-notes/swan-lake-2201.13.5
  - version: 2201.12.12
    date: '2026-06-05'
    kind: patch
    breaking: false
    highlights:
      - Patch on the maintained 2201.12.x line, released after 2201.13.4 shipped.
    url: https://ballerina.io/downloads/swan-lake-release-notes/swan-lake-2201.12.12
  - version: 2201.13.4
    date: '2026-05-09'
    kind: patch
    breaking: false
    url: https://ballerina.io/downloads/swan-lake-release-notes/swan-lake-2201.13.4
  - version: 2201.13.3
    date: '2026-04-20'
    kind: patch
    breaking: false
    url: https://ballerina.io/downloads/swan-lake-release-notes/swan-lake-2201.13.3
  - version: 2201.13.2
    date: '2026-03-14'
    kind: patch
    breaking: false
    url: https://ballerina.io/downloads/swan-lake-release-notes/swan-lake-2201.13.2
  - version: 2201.13.1
    date: '2025-11-14'
    kind: patch
    breaking: false
    url: https://ballerina.io/downloads/swan-lake-release-notes/swan-lake-2201.13.1
  - version: 2201.13.0
    date: '2025-11-07'
    kind: minor
    breaking: false
    highlights:
      - 'Natural expressions: experimental first-class syntax for running natural-language instructions through an LLM at runtime, with dependent typing on the expected result shape and multimodal (image/audio/file) inputs.'
      - 'Compile-time code generation: `const natural` data generation and `@natural:code` function generation.'
      - 'Multi-package workspaces for monorepo-style development without publishing to a repository.'
      - 'CLI tools (openapi, graphql, grpc, persist) decoupled from the distribution and updatable with `bal tool update`.'
      - '`bal clean --dependency-cache`; consecutive builds skip recompiling unchanged projects within 24 hours.'
      - 'xml:fromString() now preserves the XML declaration; time:civilAddDuration() added; OAuth2 client timeouts configurable.'
    url: https://ballerina.io/downloads/swan-lake-release-notes/swan-lake-2201.13.0
in_flight:
  - version: 2201.13.6-rc1
    date: '2026-09-01'
    stage: release-candidate
  - channel: nightly
    date: '2026-09-04'
    note: A nightly build is published daily to the ballerina-distribution releases.
api_changelog:
  published: false
  note: >-
    No dated change record exists for the /2.0/ Central REST API. Consumers have no way to
    learn that an endpoint moved — which is exactly how this record ended up carrying a
    contract describing /2.0/packages instead of /2.0/registry/packages.