Release Train Schedule Planner
Plan fixed-cadence release dates with code freeze, release candidate and GA milestones, weekend-safe.
About this tool
Release Train Schedule Planner
Plan fixed-cadence release dates with code freeze, release candidate and GA milestones, weekend-safe.
The Release Train Schedule Planner generates a fixed-cadence release train schedule — the code freeze, release candidate (RC) and general availability (GA) date for every cycle — from one starting GA date and a cadence in weeks. It follows the train model used by Chromium's 4-week release cycle and SAFe's Agile Release Train: releases leave on schedule and unfinished features catch the next train. Release managers and engineering leads get a publishable milestone table, with weekend ship dates automatically pulled back to Friday.
How to use Release Train Schedule Planner
- 1
Open Release Train Schedule Planner on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
- 2
Set the 'First GA date' and the 'Cadence (weeks between GAs)' from 1 to 26, then 'Releases to plan' from 1 to 24 and an optional Version prefix such as v7.
- 3
Enter 'Code freeze lead (days before GA)' and 'RC cut lead (days before GA)' up to 90 — the RC comes from the frozen branch so it cannot exceed the freeze lead — and tick 'Shift weekend milestones back to Friday'.
- 4
Read the Release / Code freeze / RC cut / GA table with each milestone's weekday and the stabilisation window in days, then press 'Copy schedule' for a Markdown pipe table to paste into a wiki.
Why use Release Train Schedule Planner
Three milestones per cycle
Every release gets a code freeze, RC cut and GA date derived from your lead-time settings.
Weekend-safe shipping
Milestones landing on Saturday or Sunday shift back to Friday — dates only ever move earlier.
Cadence sanity checks
The planner rejects impossible setups, like a freeze lead longer than the cadence itself.
Common use cases
- A release manager moving a team from ad-hoc releases to a 4-week train publishes six months of freeze, RC and GA dates in one go
- An engineering lead checks whether a 14-day stabilisation window is even possible on a 2-week cadence before proposing it
- A platform team pastes the generated Markdown table into their wiki so every squad can see exactly when the next freeze lands
Frequently asked questions
What is a release train in software development?
A release train is a fixed-schedule release model: versions ship on a set cadence (every 2, 4 or 6 weeks) and any feature that is not ready simply waits for the next train instead of delaying the release. Chromium and Firefox ship on 4-week trains, and SAFe formalises the idea as the Agile Release Train.
What is the difference between code freeze, RC and GA?
Code freeze is the date the release branch stops accepting new features — only critical fixes land after it. The release candidate (RC) is a build cut from that frozen branch for final validation, and GA (general availability) is the date the release ships to all users. The freeze-to-GA gap is the stabilisation window, commonly one to two weeks.
How long should a code freeze be before release?
Most teams on a 4-week train freeze 7–14 days before GA, cutting the RC about a week out. The freeze must be strictly shorter than the cadence — a 14-day freeze on a 1-week train would mean freezing before the previous release has even shipped, which this planner flags as an error.
Why not release on a Friday or weekend?
Nobody staffs weekends to catch a bad release, so trains avoid shipping into them; this planner moves Saturday and Sunday milestones back to Friday, and many teams go further and target Tuesday–Thursday. Shifting earlier rather than later keeps the published date a worst-case deadline.