Hotfix Release Notes for Critical Issues

Hotfix Release Notes

A hotfix release addresses a critical production issue that cannot wait for the next regular release cycle. The release notes must be clear, urgent, and actionable.

Template

## [2.3.1] - 2026-02-28 (HOTFIX)

**Severity: Critical**
**Affected versions: 2.3.0**
**Action required: Upgrade immediately**

### Fixed

- **CRITICAL:** Fix data loss when saving documents with embedded
  images larger than 5MB. Documents were silently truncated,
  losing content after the image. (#1234)

  **Impact:** Any user who saved a document containing large
  images in v2.3.0 may have lost content. After upgrading,
  re-save affected documents from your revision history.

  **Root cause:** Buffer overflow in the image serialization
  pipeline introduced in v2.3.0 refactoring.

What Makes Hotfix Notes Different

1. Urgency indicator — Mark as HOTFIX with severity level
2. Affected versions — Exact range so users know if they are affected
3. Action required — Tell users what to do, not just what you fixed
4. Impact assessment — Help users understand if they were affected
5. Root cause — Brief explanation builds trust and prevents recurrence
6. Recovery steps — If data was affected, explain how to recover

Communication Channels

For critical hotfixes, release notes are not enough:

• Email/Slack notification to affected customers
• Status page update with incident timeline
• Social media if the project is widely used
• In-app notification if possible

Post-Incident

After the hotfix, publish a post-mortem covering:

• Timeline of the incident
• Root cause analysis
• Steps taken to prevent recurrence
• Monitoring improvements added