chore(release): v0.18.2-alpha

[sulthannauval]

Summary

• Problem: four memory fixes are on main (fix(tools): enforce the autonomy gate before memory_forget reads the store #437, fix(memory): make the markdown backend upsert, and forget every copy #438, fix(memory): stop memory stats printing a total its breakdown contradicts #439, fix(memory): re-project MEMORY.md on every memory write, not just the CLI's #440) but carried on no tag, so no installed build has them.
• Why it matters: one of them changes what reaches the model — a core memory deleted through the agent's tool, the TUI or the HTTP API kept being injected into every system prompt until the process restarted.
• What changed: version bump only. Exactly the three files docs/contributing/release-process.md §2 names — Cargo.toml, Cargo.lock, CHANGELOG.md.
• What did NOT change (scope boundary): no source, no config schema, no workflow. Cargo.lock's diff is the single rantaiclaw version line.

Patch, not minor. Per the runbook: "a new CLI surface or a changed API contract is minor; anything else is patch." None of the four adds a command, flag, route or schema field:

PR	What changed	New surface?
#437	gate ordering inside memory_forget; tool schema unchanged	no
#438	markdown backend semantics; Memory trait unchanged	no
#439	memory stats output text; no new command or flag	no
#440	internal projection refresh	no

Label Snapshot (required)

• Risk label (risk: low|medium|high): risk: low
• Size label: auto-managed
• Scope labels: core
• Module labels: —
• Contributor tier label: auto-managed
• If any auto-label is incorrect, note requested correction: —

Change Metadata

• Change type: chore
• Primary scope: runtime

Linked Issue

• Closes #
• Related fix(tools): enforce the autonomy gate before memory_forget reads the store #437, fix(memory): make the markdown backend upsert, and forget every copy #438, fix(memory): stop memory stats printing a total its breakdown contradicts #439, fix(memory): re-project MEMORY.md on every memory write, not just the CLI's #440 — the contents of this release
• Depends on # — none; all four are already merged to main
• Supersedes # — none

Validation Evidence (required)

The three release gates from docs/contributing/release-process.md §2, which are what verify-update-cycle runs:

cargo test --locked --test schema_drift --test config_migration_roundtrip   # 5 passed
cargo test --locked --lib config::migrations                                # 19 passed
cargo test --locked --lib sessions::migrations                              # 2 passed

• Evidence provided: schema_drift passes without a snapshot update. Per the runbook that is the machine-checkable statement that the config schema did not move, and therefore that this release carries no migration and rolls back cleanly. Independently confirmed: git diff v0.18.1-alpha..main touches no file under src/config/.
• Cargo.lock was regenerated with cargo check --offline (--locked refuses, by design). The resulting diff is one line.
• If any command is intentionally skipped: the full test suite was not re-run here — this PR contains no source change, and main at 670d31c is green including the post-merge-only jobs (E2E, Build (Smoke), Bench Compile, and the three Features matrix variants).

Security Impact (required)

• New permissions/capabilities? No
• New external network calls? No
• Secrets/tokens handling changed? No
• File system access scope changed? No

Version metadata only. The security-adjacent improvements are in the four already-merged PRs, not here.

Privacy and Data Hygiene (required)

• Data-hygiene status: pass
• Redaction/anonymization notes: the changelog quotes one projected memory line from a test fixture (rotation_note: staging credentials rotate weekly) — synthetic, from tools::memory_forget::tests.
• Neutral wording confirmation: confirmed.

Compatibility / Migration

• Backward compatible? Yes
• Config/env changes? No
• Migration needed? No

Two behaviour notes worth reading before upgrading, both flagged at the top of their changelog entries:

1. memory stats output changed shape — Total: can read unavailable (<cause>), and the category header can carry (most recent N of M). Anything parsing that command should be checked. It is a human-facing diagnostic, not a documented machine interface.
2. Operators running [memory] backend = "markdown" get upsert semantics where the backend previously appended. Existing duplicate lines collapse on the next write of that key; no migration step.

Human Verification (required)

• Verified scenarios: the three release gates above; Cargo.lock diff inspected line by line; version string confirmed in Cargo.toml.
• Edge cases checked: schema_drift deliberately run without accepting a snapshot, so a silent schema move would fail rather than be recorded.
• What was not verified: the release artifacts themselves. Runbook §3 (manual Pub Release with publish_release=false) runs after this PR lands and before the tag is cut; §6 post-release validation — checksum, --version on the extracted binary, and the GHCR image push step — happens after publish. None of that is possible from this PR.

Side Effects / Blast Radius (required)

• Affected subsystems: build metadata only. No runtime code path changes in this commit.
• Potential unintended effects: none in this commit. The blast radius of the release contents is the four merged PRs, each with its own analysis.
• Guardrails: the tag is cut from main by scripts/release/cut_release_tag.sh, which enforces a clean tree, HEAD == origin/main, a non-duplicate tag and semver-like format. Pub Release additionally requires the tag commit to be reachable from origin/main.

Agent Collaboration Notes (recommended)

• Agent tools used: Claude Code.
• Workflow/plan summary: follows docs/contributing/release-process.md §2. Bump chosen by the runbook's own rule rather than by effort; the per-PR table above is the reasoning.
• Verification focus: that the schema did not move, since that is what decides whether this release is reversible.
• Confirmation: naming + architecture boundaries followed (AGENTS.md + CONTRIBUTING.md) — yes.

Rollback Plan (required)

• Fast rollback: git revert 094d331 before tagging. After tagging, delete the tag and the GitHub Release; the four fixes stay on main and ship in the next version.
• Feature flags: none.
• Observable failure symptoms: rantaiclaw --version disagreeing with the tag, or Pub Release refusing the tag because Cargo.toml still claims the previous version — which is the exact failure this PR-before-tag ordering exists to prevent.

Risks and Mitigations

• Risk: memory stats output is a shape change an operator's script could depend on, shipped in a patch release.

  • Mitigation: the runbook keys the bump to CLI surfaces and API contracts, not to output text, so patch is correct by this project's rule. Called out at the top of that changelog entry and in Compatibility above rather than left for someone to discover.

• Risk: the release notes are generated from the tag, so an error in CHANGELOG.md becomes public at publish time.

  • Mitigation: the entry is reviewable here, before the tag exists. Each claim in it traces to a merged PR whose evidence is on that PR.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[github-actions]

PR intake checks found warnings (non-blocking)

Fast safe checks found advisory issues. CI lint/test/build gates still enforce merge quality.

• Incomplete required PR template fields: summary problem, summary why it matters, summary what changed, validation commands, security risk/mitigation, privacy status, rollback plan

Action items:

1. Complete required PR template sections/fields.
2. Remove tabs, trailing whitespace, and merge conflict markers from added lines.
3. Re-run local checks before pushing:
   • ./scripts/ci/rust_quality_gate.sh
   • ./scripts/ci/rust_strict_delta_gate.sh
   • ./scripts/ci/docs_quality_gate.sh

Run logs: https://github.com/RantAI-dev/RantAIClaw/actions/runs/31263915999

Detected blocking line issues (sample):

• none

Detected advisory line issues (sample):

• none