Versioning & governance

Someone deleted brand-blue because the new name is primary. Twelve products broke on Monday. The system did not fail. The process did.

Deprecate, don't delete. Alias the old name to the new one. Version the release. Name one owner. Values still change in one place. Consumers get time to move.

Delete on the left — the consumer has nothing to resolve. Deprecate on the right — the alias still paints.

A deprecation is a promise: this still works, and it will not forever. A deletion is a surprise.