Release PyGMT v0.20.0

[seisman]

Release: v0.20.0
Scheduled Date: 2026/09/30
Pull request due date: 20YY/MM/DD
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.XXXXXXX
Announcement draft: https://hackmd.io/@pygmt/xxxxxxxx

Priority PRs/issues to complete prior to release

• Wrap X ()
• Wrap Y ()

Before release:

• Reserve a DOI on Zenodo by clicking on "New Version"
• Check SPEC 0 to see if we need to bump the minimum supported versions of GMT, Python and core package dependencies (NumPy, pandas, xarray)
• Review the "PyGMT Team" page
• README looks good on TestPyPI. Visit TestPyPI, click the latest pre-release, and check the homepage.
• Review new parameter names added/changed for clarity and consistency across the API
• Check to ensure that:
  • Deprecated workarounds/codes/tests are removed. Run grep -r "# TODO" --include="*.py" . to find all potential TODOs.
  • All tests pass in the "GMT Legacy Tests" workflow
  • All tests pass in the "GMT Dev Tests" workflow
  • All tests pass in the "Doctests" workflow
  • All links work in the "Check Links" workflow
• Update warnings in pygmt/_show_versions.py as well as notes in Not working transparency regarding GMT-Ghostscript incompatibility
• Finish up the "Changelog entry for v0.x.x" Pull Request (Use the previous changelog PR as a reference)
• Run make spellcheck to check common misspellings. If there are any, either fix them or add them to the relevant spelling configuration in pyproject.toml
• Draft the announcement on https://hackmd.io/@pygmt

Release:

• At the PyGMT release page on GitHub:
  • Edit the draft release notes with the finalized changelog
  • Set the tag version and release title to vX.Y.Z
  • Make a release by clicking the 'Publish Release' button, this will automatically create a tag too
• Verify that all workflows triggered by the release pass
  • The latest version is correct on PyPI
  • The latest version is correct on https://www.pygmt.org/latest/
  • The release page has five assets, including baseline-images.zip, pygmt-docs.zip and pygmt-docs.pdf
• Upload to Zenodo:
  • Download pygmt-X.Y.Z.zip (listed as Source code (zip); rename it to pygmt-vX.Y.Z.zip) and baseline-images.zip from the release page, and upload the two zip files to https://zenodo.org/deposit
  • Ensure they are filed under the correct reserved DOI
  • Update authorship information based on CITATION.cff

After release:

• Update conda-forge pygmt-feedstock (Done automatically by conda-forge's bot. If you don't want to wait, open a new issue in the conda-forge/pygmt-feedstock repository with the title @conda-forge-admin, please update version. This will trigger the bot immediately. Remember to pin GMT, Python and SPEC0 versions)
• Bump PyGMT version on https://github.com/GenericMappingTools/try-gmt (after conda-forge update)
• Announce the release on:
  • GMT forum (do this announcement first! Requires moderator status)
  • ResearchGate (after forum announcement; download the ZIP file of the new release from Zenodo and add it as research item via the code category, be sure to include the corresponding new Zenodo DOI)
• Update release checklist template with any additional bullet points that may have arisen during the release

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• Party 🎉 (don't tick before all other checkboxes are ticked!)

[seisman]

As mentioned in #4816 (comment), the Figure.tilemap issue can have a broad effect and there is no easy workaround. So we need to make a new release.

Looking at the changes since v0.19.0, we have three options

• Release v0.20.0 from the main branch
  • Pros: Simple
  • Cons:
    1. Only 1.5 months since v0.19.0
    2. Not too many new features/enhancements
• Release v0.19.1 from the main branch
  • Pros: Simple
  • Cons:
    1. We have a new enhancement (pygmt.blockmean/blockmedian/blockmode: Add the center parameter (-C) #4780), so strictly speaking, it can be a patch release. Or maybe we can revert pygmt.blockmean/blockmedian/blockmode: Add the center parameter (-C) #4780, release v0.19.1 and then apply it again.
    2. We have a deprecation (Figure.grdcontour: Remove the deprecated 'interval' parameter [Deprecated since v0.12.0] #4764), but it should be deprecated in v0.12.0
• Release v0.19.1 by cherry-picking a few commits (Figure.directional_rose/Figure.magnetic_rose: Fix compatibility with upcoming GMT 6.7.0 #4729, Figure.grdview: Fix the default z-plane with GMT 6.7.0 #4804, Figure.tilemap/pygmt.datasets.tile_map: Set User-Agent to avoid blocked access to OSM tile server #4816) on top of v0.19.0
  • Pros: Strictly follow SemVer
  • Cons: operation is complicated

[seisman]

As explained in #4815 (comment), there is a workaround for the issue. So, it's likely we no longer need a v0.19.1 release.

Keep this issue for v0.20.0, scheduled in Sep 2026.

[yvonnefroehlich]

As explained in #4815 (comment), there is a workaround for the issue. So, it's likely we no longer need a v0.19.1 release.

I think with this workaround it should be fine 🙂.
Beside this, it seems we are lucky and the example in the PyGMT paper is not affected 🥳.