v0.18.0 Release Preparation

Status: release candidate qualified and published on 2026-08-28. This record owns the completed preparation of v0.18.0. Final publication and downloaded-asset evidence is frozen in the immutable release record.

Release Boundary

v0.18.0 contains the completed construction-surface simplification, source-declared named builtins, instance-owned interface implementation, and persistent-semantic-authority phases. It also contains the completed compiler and editor boundary corrections recorded by the v0.18.0 reviews. No later practical API belongs to this candidate.

The public release notes are ../../releases/v0.18.0.md. The publication commit updates the public README and release index to v0.18.0 before its annotated tag and GitHub release are created.

Candidate Identity

The release inputs must agree on 0.18.0:

• development/packaging/VERSION;
• development/packaging/MANIFEST.json and its archive name;
• the #package version in development/std/index.nct;
• installed compiler and language-server reporting derived from the validated home.

Traceability

The candidate closes four completed scopes:

Qualification Contract

The release-content commit must pass:

1. 1. the complete locked workspace tests, warnings-denied all-target Clippy, formatting, manifest validation, generated documentation, and repository integrity checks;
2. a second clean locked test run and clean warnings-denied Clippy in distinct disposable external Cargo targets;
3. the explicit public-HTTPS acquisition test;
4. two independent optimized packages built in separate disposable targets, with byte-identical archives and recursively identical installed homes;
5. fresh extraction checks for version, diagnosis, help, initialization, locked/offline checking and testing, deterministic package graphs, native run, explicit build and execution, and framed LSP analysis of installed standard-library contract and implementation sources;
6. proof that the installed home remains unchanged throughout the smoke matrix;
7. a final review for duplicate semantic authority, reverse dependency, stale compatibility path, repeated package-root decision, source-projection influence on semantics, and a responsibility that requires another responsibility's private representation.

Qualification uses only external temporary Cargo targets and leaves no repository-local target/. The retained record will name the exact release-content commit, archive byte size, SHA-256 digest, and tracked standard-library file count.

Source Qualification

The exact release-content commit is 4490dcd411215ae43b196dbde71f9b1afbec2ae7 (Prepare v0.18.0 release candidate). Qualification on that clean commit produced the following evidence:

• two complete cargo test --locked --workspace --quiet runs in distinct external targets each reported 1,350 passed, 0 failed, and 1 ignored;
• two clean cargo clippy --locked --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings runs passed in external targets;
• cargo fmt --all --check, release-manifest validation, the 234-page documentation build, and git diff --check passed;
• the ignored public-HTTPS acquisition test git::tests::clones_resolves_and_materializes_without_external_git passed with one test and no failures;
• qualification left no repository-local compiler target/ directory.

The HTTPS test was first attempted in the network-restricted sandbox and failed at server I/O. The same exact test passed when explicitly granted network access; the restricted attempt is not a compiler or protocol failure.

Artifact Qualification

development/packaging/qualify-local-release.sh built two independent optimized packages from the release-content commit. Their archives and recursively installed homes were byte-identical. The retained candidate is:

• archive: dist/nocter-v0.18.0-arm64-darwin.tar.gz;
• bytes: 7,498,219;
• SHA-256: 534e4ea5231923877ee76cdadeb070a4c11f881dc09ecb517b037af49a17abf6;
• executable: ARM64 Mach-O;
• installed identity: release 0.18.0, host arm64-darwin, default target arm64-darwin;
• standard-library payload: exactly 66 tracked regular files.

Fresh extraction passed version, doctor, help, initialization, locked/offline check and test, deterministic graph, native run, explicit build and direct execution, and framed LSP checks over installed standard-library contract and implementation sources. The installed Nocter home was recursively unchanged after the matrix.

Final Boundary Review

The final review found no release-blocking implementation defect. In particular:

• active compiler, standard-library, examples, and specification sources contain no standalone conform syntax or removed semantic checkpoint authority;
• the remaining arena/parser checkpoints are responsibility-local construction mechanics, not a rollback path for accepted semantic state;
• package-root probing remains owned by PackageRootCatalog; consumers ask that contract instead of parsing package declarations themselves;
• architecture-conformance tests and the complete workspace suite cover semantic-authority generation integrity, source-projection separation, dependency direction, and installed tooling;
• the root README no longer reports unreleased implementation or milestone status; at qualification time, the README and public release index deliberately retained v0.17.0 until publication was authorized;
• an ignored development/std/.DS_Store rejected by packaging was removed. The standard-library payload is now exactly its tracked regular files.

Searches for TODO, FIXME, HACK, todo!, and unimplemented! found no active product-source placeholder. The only textual TODO match was the intentional contributor handoff link in development/compiler/README.md.

Publication Boundary

Publication is authorized. The qualified archive remains frozen while the publication commit, annotated tag, GitHub release, asset upload, and public re-download audit are completed.