v18.1.4

A review release of fixes. The brain format (version: 7), bf.yaml, the reply schemas and the packaged skills are unchanged; the search cache rebuilds once. Upgrade with uv tool upgrade brain-framework (or update a brain's pin); no other step is needed.

Fixed

• Search no longer lands on a section without the matching text: in a copied document with several H1s, text under a later H1 ranked as the H2 above it, whose exact read stops at that H1. An H1 after the first section is now a section of its own. The search cache rebuilds once.
• A record's fields other than text are bounded by their encoded size, as the reply limit counts bytes: a record of long non-ASCII links or aliases passed the 2 MiB check, then every exact read of it failed with response exceeds its byte limit. Collection now rejects it with fields other than text exceed 2 MiB.
• A registered brain whose folder exists but cannot be reached, such as a locked folder, is reported as registered brain directory exists but cannot be reached; restore access to it by search, read and bf status instead of as absent, whose advice to register it again bf register then refused. A registered path that became a regular file is absent everywhere, so bf register takes over its name.
• An empty value, as an unset variable gives, is invalid input for bf collect "", bf run "", --sensor "", --routine "", bf collect SENSOR --since "" and bf build --reproject "": they used to name an unknown program, collect the default window or rebuild the whole cache instead of reprojecting.
• A zero-length window such as 0d is an invalid period for bf read and --scope alike; the read used to return an empty page while the scope failed with since must be earlier than until. bf validate reports a link to such a page as an unresolved BF target.
• bf mcp no longer writes the MCP SDK's log line for each rejected or failed tool call to stderr; the reply carries the error.
• Excerpts of a large passage holding a few characters that folding changes, such as ² or a no-break space, are computed faster.

Documentation

• The four-tool guide and the watch example give the working checkout command, uv run --project CHECKOUT bf inside a copied brain; the README's four-tool reply names what it trims.

Added

• scripts/verify-release.sh X.Y.Z verifies a published release in one command: the annotated tag on origin, a non-draft GitHub release holding exactly the wheel and source archive, PyPI digests matching them, their build attestations and a clean install of that wheel that initializes, validates, searches and reads a brain. The release checklist now gives the commands for the release worktree, checking tasks with the pinned mise, waiting for CD and syncing the primary checkout, runs the gate with GITHUB_ACTIONS=true and asks for an independent review before committing. Tests cover scripts/verify-release-tag.sh, the guard CD runs before publishing.

Changed

• Development tools: Python 3.14.8, uv 0.12.23, dprint 0.60.1, lefthook 2.1.16, trivy 0.75.0 and mise 2026.10.0 in the workflows. The package smoke test builds its environments in the disk cache instead of /tmp, and every test subprocess has a timeout.