diff --git a/HACKING.md b/HACKING.md
index 15ad62f9..7f432928 100644
--- a/HACKING.md
+++ b/HACKING.md
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ This spec includes several Go packages, and a command line tool considered to be
 
 Prerequisites:
 
-- Go - current release only, earlier releases are not supported
+- Go - latest version is recommended, see the [go.mod](go.mod) file for the minimum requirement
 - make
 
 The following make targets are relevant for any work involving the Go packages.
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 3399451b..9a45167f 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 module github.com/opencontainers/image-spec
 
+// The minimum Go release is only incremented when required by a feature.
+// At least 3 Go releases will be supported by the spec.
+// For example, updating this version to 1.19 first requires Go 1.21 to be released.
 go 1.18
 
 require (