diff --git a/VersionNumbering.rst b/VersionNumbering.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0d32e588
--- /dev/null
+++ b/VersionNumbering.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+OpenVPN 3 version numbering and release process
+===============================================
+
+OpenVPN 3 version numbers will always be prefixed with ``3.`` which
+indicates the OpenVPN generation.  This library is the third
+generation of the OpenVPN protocol implementation.
+
+As of OpenVPN 3.2, we will use a single positive integer indicating a
+release number as the version reference.
+
+
+Git branches and versioning
+---------------------------
+Main development will happen on the git master branch.  This will not
+contain any specific version.  It is will be set to ``3.git:master``.
+This branch will contain both stable and unstable code, which will be
+bleeding edge at any time.  Do not depend on git master for production code.
+
+Once features and fixes in git master has stabilized, they will be
+merged into the ``stable`` branch.  Code extracted from the stable branch
+will contain the release number of the last release.  The stable
+branch is suitable for production code.
+
+It is not set up a specific plan for when releases will occur. We
+might want to collect up a smaller set of features before defining it
+ready as a release, depending on the size of the changes.  At the
+release time, the version string will be updated and tagged (with
+a PGP signature).
+
+We should not pile up too many features for each release.  It is
+better to release often with smaller changesets.
+
+
+Hot-fixes
+---------
+
+We will not do any patch number releases unless strictly needed for
+older releases numbers.  Such releases will be called hot-fixes and
+will be handled in separate branches only when needed. These branches
+will be named ``hotfix/3.X``; where X denotes the release number the
+hotfix targets.  Hotfixes need to update the version string as well
+as attaching a git tag with the proper version number.
+
+**Hot-fixes should be avoided as much as possible** and we should
+**encourage users to base their work on the stable branch** primarily.
+Hot-fixes will only be used for highly critical issues which cannot
+wait for a release or the feature gap to move to a newer release is
+considered too big.  But it should also only occur for releases which
+are still relevant.
+
+
+Examples
+--------
+
+git ``master`` branch:  version string will be ``3.git:master``
+
+git ``stable`` branch:  version string will be ``3.2``, ``3.3``, etc
+
+hotfix for v3.2 will be in ``hotfix/3.2`` and the version string will be
+``3.2.1``
+
+Similarly, hotfix for v3.3 will be found in ``hotfix/3.3`` and the version
+string will be ``3.3.1``.
diff --git a/openvpn/common/version.hpp b/openvpn/common/version.hpp
index d2c633ad..21d4a65c 100644
--- a/openvpn/common/version.hpp
+++ b/openvpn/common/version.hpp
@@ -24,6 +24,6 @@
 #ifndef OPENVPN_COMMON_VERSION_H
 #define OPENVPN_COMMON_VERSION_H
 
-#define OPENVPN_VERSION "3.1.2"
+#define OPENVPN_VERSION "3.git:master"
 
 #endif // OPENVPN_COMMON_VERSION_H