Using semantic versioning is about managing expectations. It's about managing how the user of your application, or library, will react when a change happens to it. Changes will happen for various reasons, either to fix something broken in the code or add/alter/remove a feature. The way authors of frameworks or libraries use to convey what impact a certain change has is by incrementing the version number of the software.

A production-ready software usually has version 1.0 or 1.0.0 if you want to be more specific.

There are three different levels of change that can happen when updating your software. Either you patch it and effectively correct something. Or you make a minor change, which essentially means you add functionality. Or lastly you make a major change, which might completely change how your software works. Let's describe these changes in more detail in the following sections.