A release blocking Jira is any open Jira that has its Fix Version
field set to an upcoming version of Beam.
A bug should block a release if it is a significant regression or loss of functionality. It should usually have priority Critical/P1. Lower priorities do not have urgency, while Blocker/P0 is reserved for issues so urgent they do not wait for a release.
By default, features do not block releases. Beam has a steady 6 week cadence of cutting release branches and releasing. Features “catch the train” or else wait for the next release.
A feature can block a release if there is community consensus to delay a release in order to include the feature.