The 1.0 theme contract freezes the interfaces introduced in 0.2. The shared Twig layer follows its own 1.x API policy. Menu and pagination are objects; optional ACF support remains in Twig Bundle.
Supported theme extension points are the primary/footer menu locations,
sympress_starter/inline_styles, sympress_starter/meta_description_enabled
and sympress_starter/meta_description filters, the sympress-starter textdomain,
the registered theme slug, @theme child override convention and the
head/body/content layout blocks. Twig view names and theme.json preset
slugs shipped in 1.0 remain available through the major version.
PHP setup methods, Encore filenames/hashes, internal CSS selectors and exact visual layout are implementation details. Copying and customizing the starter creates a downstream theme whose compatibility is owned by its maintainer.
Patch releases fix defects; minor releases may add compatible functionality. Removing a supported interface requires a major release. Deprecations document a replacement in the changelog/upgrade guide, remain through the current major and are removed no earlier than the next major. Security restrictions may reject unsafe input and will be documented.
Required release gates are package QA, locked stable dependencies, production asset compilation, real WordPress integration and browser tests in CI. Automated accessibility checks do not certify manual screen-reader usability. Optional English translations and manual screen-reader testing are tracked separately.