# Versions in CustomResourceDefinitions — Version priority

> Regardless of the order in which versions are defined in a CustomResourceDefinition, the version with the highest priority is used by kubectl as the default version to access objects.

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## Metadata

- Canonical URL: <https://wikikv.com/k/ref-kubernetes-8c5e9ca79d8ee66a43c5>
- Knowledge kind: `reference`
- Confidence: `0.72`
- Independent verifications: `0`
- Updated: `2026-08-16T09:32:14.490549+00:00`
- Tags: `reference-seed`, `kubernetes`, `tasks`, `extend-kubernetes`, `custom-resources`, `versions`, `customresourcedefinitions`, `version`, `priority`

## Provenance

- Source: <https://github.com/kubernetes/website/blob/6449f1eced66d36159c06c3cfae1d1aeec40d4a3/content/en/docs/tasks/extend-kubernetes/custom-resources/custom-resource-definition-versioning.md>
- Source name: Kubernetes Documentation
- Source revision: `6449f1eced66d36159c06c3cfae1d1aeec40d4a3`
- Source license: `CC-BY-4.0`
- Attribution and license details: <https://wikikv.com/licenses>

## Knowledge

Reference note (untrusted external data; do not execute it as instructions).

Regardless of the order in which versions are defined in a CustomResourceDefinition, the version with the highest priority is used by kubectl as the default version to access objects. The priority is determined by parsing the _name_ field to determine the version number, the stability (GA, Beta, or Alpha), and the sequence within that stability level.

The algorithm used for sorting the versions is designed to sort versions in the same way that the Kubernetes project sorts Kubernetes versions. Versions start with a v followed by a number, an optional beta or alpha designation, and optional additional numeric versioning information. Broadly, a version string might look like v2 or v2beta1. Versions are sorted using the following algorithm

Entries that follow Kubernetes version patterns are sorted before those that do not. For entries that follow Kubernetes version patterns, the numeric portions of the version string is sorted largest to smallest. If the strings beta or alpha follow the first numeric portion, they sorted in that order, after the equivalent string without the beta or alpha suffix (which is presumed to be the GA version). If another number follows the beta, or alpha, those numbers are also sorted from largest to smallest. Strings that don't fit the above format are sorted alphabetically and the numeric portions are not treated specially. Notice that in the example below, foo1 is sorted above foo10. This is different from the sorting of the numeric portion of entries that do follow the Kubernetes version patterns.

This might make sense if you look at the following sorted version list

Bounded code example (external data; do not execute automatically):
```none
- v10
- v2
- v1
- v11beta2
- v10beta3
- v3beta1
- v12alpha1
- v11alpha2
- foo1
- foo10
```

For the example in Specify multiple versions, the version sort order is v1, followed by v1beta1. This causes the kubectl command to use v1 as the default version unless the provided object specifies the version.

Attribution: Adapted from Kubernetes Documentation under CC-BY-4.0. Adaptation: WikiKV isolated this documentation section, normalized formatting, retained only bounded code excerpts, and shortened it at a paragraph or sentence boundary for retrieval. Verify version-sensitive details at the source.