# Source: https://docs.promptlayer.com/features/prompt-registry/release-labels.md

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.promptlayer.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Release Labels

Release Labels provide a powerful way to organize and manage versions of your prompt templates in the Prompt Registry. They allow you to:

* Easily deploy different versions of a prompt template
* Safely test new versions with a subset of users before a full rollout
* Gradually release updates to minimize risk
* Segment users to receive specific versions (e.g., beta users, internal employees)

## Adding Release Labels

You can add Release Labels to a specific version of a prompt template either through the UI.

1. In the Prompt Registry, hover over a prompt template version
2. Click "Add Release Label"
3. Enter a unique label name (e.g. "prod", "staging", "v2")

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/promptlayer/jUVR1Bx755pIFGwB/images/quickstart/release-label.gif?s=10f68f8ab8bc6b2f4f9c0d0470ad6c15" alt="Release Label" data-og-width="660" width="660" data-og-height="318" height="318" data-path="images/quickstart/release-label.gif" data-optimize="true" data-opv="3" />

## Retrieving Prompts by Release Label

To retrieve a specific version of a prompt template, pass the `label` parameter when getting the template:

<CodeGroup>
  ```python Python SDK theme={null}
  promptlayer_client.templates.get("my_template", { "label": "prod" })
  ```

  ```js JavaScript theme={null}
  const template = await promptLayerClient.templates.get("my_template", { label: "prod" });
  ```
</CodeGroup>

This will return the version of the prompt template associated with the "prod" release label. This also works with `promptlayer_client.run()`.

## Using Release Labels for A/B Testing

Release Labels, combined with [Dynamic Release Labels](/features/prompt-registry/dynamic-release-labels), enable powerful A/B testing capabilities:

1. Create multiple versions of a prompt template
2. Set up a Dynamic Release Label to overload an existing release label (e.g., "prod")
3. Configure the Dynamic Release Label to split traffic between different versions based on percentages or user segments
4. Programmatically retrieve the prompt using the original release label, which will now dynamically route to the appropriate version
5. Analyze performance of each version using PromptLayer's analytics and Evaluations

This approach allows you to test prompt changes on a subset of users, compare performance, and gradually roll out updates while maintaining a single, consistent Release Label for your application to use.

## Best Practices

* Use descriptive Release Labels that indicate the version's stage or intended audience (e.g., "prod", "staging", "beta\_users")
* Remove unused Release Labels to keep your prompt template organized
* Use Dynamic Release Labels for more advanced traffic splitting and segmentation

With Release Labels, you can confidently manage prompt template versions and roll out updates without code changes. Combine them with PromptLayer's [versioning](/features/prompt-registry/overview), [analytics](/why-promptlayer/analytics), and [evaluations](/features/evaluations/overview) for a powerful prompt engineering workflow.