diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 389ddd38..715c12c9 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 1.8.15.dev0
  * #919: Clarify the command-line help for the "--config" flag.
+ * #919: Document a policy for versioning and breaking changes:
+   https://torsion.org/borgmatic/docs/how-to/upgrade/#versioning-and-breaking-changes
  * #918: BREAKING: When databases are configured, don't auto-enable the "one_file_system" option,
    as existing auto-excludes of special files should be sufficient to prevent Borg from hanging on
    them. But if this change causes problems for you, you can always enable "one_file_system"
diff --git a/docs/how-to/upgrade.md b/docs/how-to/upgrade.md
index 65e15c15..1732d876 100644
--- a/docs/how-to/upgrade.md
+++ b/docs/how-to/upgrade.md
@@ -82,6 +82,25 @@ ticket](https://torsion.org/borgmatic/#issues) for help with upgrading any old
 INI-style configuration files you may have.
 
 
+### Versioning and breaking changes
+
+To avoid version number bloat, borgmatic doesn't follow traditional semantic
+versioning. But here's how borgmatic versioning generally works:
+
+ * Major version bumps (e.g., 1 to 2): Major breaking changes. Configuration
+   file formats might change, deprecated features may be removed entirely, etc.
+ * Minor version bumps (e.g., 1.8 to 1.9): Medium breaking changes. Depending
+   on the features you use, this may be a drop-in replacement. But read the
+   release notes to make sure.
+ * Patch version bumps (e.g., 1.8.14 to 1.8.15): Minor breaking changes. These
+   include, for instance, bug fixes that are technically breaking and may only
+   affects a small subset of users.
+
+Each breaking change is prefixed with "BREAKING:" in [borgmatic's release
+notes](https://projects.torsion.org/borgmatic-collective/borgmatic/releases),
+so there should hopefully be no surprises.
+
+
 ## Upgrading Borg
 
 To upgrade to a new version of Borg, you can generally install a new version