diff --git a/doc/graphviz/lammps-releases.dot b/doc/graphviz/lammps-releases.dot
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f641cac029
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/graphviz/lammps-releases.dot
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+// LAMMPS branches and releases
+digraph releases {
+    rankdir="LR";
+    github [shape="box" label="Pull Requests\non GitHub" height=0.75];
+    github -> develop [label="Merge commits"];
+    {
+        rank = "same";
+        work [shape="none" label="Development branches:"]
+        develop [label="'develop' branch" height=0.75];
+        maintenance [label="'maintenance' branch" height=0.75];
+    };
+    {
+        rank = "same";
+        upload [shape="none" label="Release branches:"]
+        release [label="'release' branch" height=0.75];
+        stable [label="'stable' branch" height=0.75];
+    };
+    develop -> release [label="Feature release\n(every 4-8 weeks)"];
+    release -> stable [label="Stable release\n(once per year)"];
+    stable -> maintenance [label="Reset on stable release" style="setlinewidth(2)"];
+    develop -> maintenance [label="Backports of bugfixes" style="dashed"];
+    maintenance -> stable [label="Updates to stable release"];
+    {
+        rank = "same";
+        tag [shape="none" label="Applied tags:"];
+        patchtag [shape="box" label="patch_<date>"];
+        stabletag [shape="box" label="stable_<date>"];
+        updatetag [shape="box" label="stable_<date>_update<num>"];
+    };
+    release -> patchtag [label="feature release" style="dotted"];
+    stable -> stabletag [label="stable release" style="dotted"];
+    stable -> updatetag [label="update release" style="dotted"];
+}
+
diff --git a/doc/src/JPG/lammps-releases.png b/doc/src/JPG/lammps-releases.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d5c317088f
Binary files /dev/null and b/doc/src/JPG/lammps-releases.png differ
diff --git a/doc/src/Manual_version.rst b/doc/src/Manual_version.rst
index f123267acf..c8ac1ac7d9 100644
--- a/doc/src/Manual_version.rst
+++ b/doc/src/Manual_version.rst
@@ -37,6 +37,11 @@ first page of the :doc:`manual <Manual>`.
 Development
 ^^^^^^^^^^^
 
+.. figure:: JPG/lammps-releases.png
+   :figclass: align-center
+
+   Relationships between main branches and tags in the LAMMPS git repository
+
 Modifications of the LAMMPS source code (like bug fixes, code
 refactoring, updates to existing features, or addition of new features)
 are organized into pull requests.  Pull requests will be merged into the