> You are reading the Docusign Developer Documentation. For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
>
> Documentation indexes by section:
> - APIs and SDKs: https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/docs/llms.txt
> - Platform 101: https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/platform/llms.txt
> - Extension Apps: https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/extension-apps/llms.txt
> - Docusign CLI: https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/docusign-cli/llms.txt
>
> Authentication (OAuth, JWT Grant, M2M): https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/platform/auth
> Webhooks and Connect: https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/platform/webhooks
>
> OpenAPI specifications: https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/openapi.json
> MCP server: https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/_mcp/server

# Backwards and forward compatibility

Docusign updates its APIs monthly. All API changes are designed to be nonbreaking for existing forward-compatible API implementations. Docusign updates follow the rules outlined below to ensure compatibility:

* Any new query parameters are *not required* and their default values will not cause any changes to current API clients.
* Any new attributes added to request objects are *optional*. New request attribute types are not limited, and may include JSON objects, arrays, and/or scalar values.
* Starting with a new API release, response objects may include new attributes. The new response attribute types are not limited, and may include JSON objects, arrays, and/or scalar values. Developer deserialization methods for processing response objects from the Docusign API *must not be strict. Unknown or unexpected response attributes must be ignored*.
* New API methods (the combination of an endpoint URL and HTTP verb) may be introduced with an API release.

**Important exception:** Information security and privacy protection errors could potentially require an API update that requires API clients to make changes.