0.1.0-rc4

• Extracted the request-local memory tier into a dedicated MemoryTier collaborator owned by ObjectCache, delegating falsey-safe reads, object-cloning writes, per-key/group removal, and request-tier clearing. The public ObjectCache surface is unchanged and all tests remain green.
• Moved the test-only ValueCodec::header_inline() fixture builder into the test support layer (ValueEnvelopeBuilder), so the production drop-in exposes only the public value-codec encode/decode surface.
• Added a topology contract test asserting the Api diagnostics and Site Health paths share the single Topology classifier for standalone, cluster, sentinel, replica, and incomplete identities.
• Documented the intentional try { adapter } catch { degrade + return-filled } boilerplate decision and the canonical persistent-connection identity subset used by PhpRedisAdapter::persistent_id().
• Wired the multisite switch_blog action so blog scope flips automatically whenever WordPress switches or restores the current blog; global groups survive the switch while non-global groups are scoped to the current blog.
• Added a wp_cache_supports() parity regression confirming the six advertised features (add_multiple, set_multiple, get_multiple, delete_multiple, flush_runtime, flush_group) are the only ones reported.
• Added contract coverage for get_multiple() $force semantics (bypasses request memory, reads the backend, repopulates memory), suspended add_multiple() / wp_cache_add() behavior, and the WP_Object_Cache alias guard so a co-resident cache is never clobbered.
• Broadened third-party interop fixtures with a page-builder admin/post-save path and a caching-adjacent get_multiple() / set_multiple()-heavy fixture, asserting no PHP diagnostics and populated hit/miss counters.
• Re-verified the numeric contract matrix with no drift after the Phase 1 hot-path changes.
• Memoized KeySpace::group_digest() per request so repeated key derivation hashes each group once, and cleaned up item_key() string assembly (implode) without changing the wire format.
• Replaced the double request-memory array probe (exists() + index) on the read path with a single falsey-safe memory_read() probe across get(), get_multiple(), and the persistent read paths, preserving hit/miss accounting and cached false / 0 / '' / null semantics.
• Added an opt-out measure_performance config key (default true) that skips microtime( true ) capture around backend commands while still counting backend_calls.
• Added request-memory-focused before/after benchmark evidence and re-ran the controlled RC3→RC4 comparison (no command-count regression; request-memory hit latency improved).
• Hardened memory safety: the value-envelope decoder now validates the declared payload length against the actual remaining bytes before slicing or allocating, and unit tests prove hostile/over/under-declared length fields are rejected as corrupt and that unserialize failures are contained with no warnings.
• Added object-aliasing isolation tests (contract + persistent integration) proving mutating a returned object never changes the cached copy across set()+get(), persistent_get, and get_multiple().
• Documented the request-tier growth policy (request-scoped, unbounded by design, freed at request end, eviction deferred to v1) and surfaced the live request-tier entry count as an on-demand Site Health / diagnostics field.
• Added close-path correctness tests for runtime-only and degraded (circuit-open) states, and archived the RC3→RC4 request-memory before/after evidence (~99 bytes/entry, no regression).
• Registered the immutable 0.1.0-rc3 drop-in checksum in the lifecycle ownership registry and updated the packaged lifecycle upgrade/rollback E2E testing for RC3 → RC4.

0.1.0-rc3

• Updated WordPress release matrix to WordPress 6.9.5 and 7.0.3 (security patch for CVE-2026-60137 and CVE-2026-63030), and added scheduled monitoring for WordPress 7.1 RC.
• Updated third-party compatibility smoke fixtures to WooCommerce 11.0.0, Yoast SEO 28.2, Easy Digital Downloads 3.6.9, and added Query Monitor 4.0.7 interoperability verification.
• Updated controlled benchmark backend image to Redis 8.10.0-alpine and validated backend compatibility on Valkey 9.
• Registered the immutable 0.1.0-rc2 drop-in checksum in the lifecycle ownership registry and updated packaged lifecycle upgrade/rollback E2E testing for RC2 → RC3.
• Relaxed $force parameter type declaration on get() and get_multiple() to match WordPress core permissive contract, verified $found disambiguation for cached false vs miss, and added multisite blog-scoping tests.
• Optimized persistent cache read allocations by returning freshly decoded value objects directly instead of performing a double object clone.
• Unified server topology classification into a single Topology helper shared across Api and Site Health diagnostics, and centralized SCHEMA_MARKER in KeySpace..
• Pruned dead test-only helper methods (del_multiple, pttl, cached_server_info, supports_unlink, group_tokens), collapsed pipeline SET execution, and eliminated reflection-based new Redis() calls in diagnostics.
• Updated release documentation, controlled performance evidence job names and artifact labels, and release tooling for 0.1.0-rc3.

0.1.0-rc2

0.1.0-rc2

• Replaced lifecycle test-fixture hashes with the immutable 0.1.0-rc1
  drop-in checksum, and require an exact release checksum before replacing or
  removing an older drop-in.
• Replaced silent WordPress cache-test rewriting with a reviewed,
  checksum-gated patch and a separate provenance verification command.
• Expanded release validation to WordPress 6.9.5 and 7.0.2 across core/query
  contract and packaged browser/WP-CLI E2E coverage, with a scheduled trunk
  compatibility signal.
• Unified numeric coercion and saturation across request memory, Redis, and
  Valkey; boolean true now follows WordPress normalization instead of being
  counted as one before incrementing.
• Added a packaged RC1-to-current lifecycle gate covering atomic upgrade,
  failed-update recovery, deliberate rollback, deactivation, and foreign
  drop-in preservation, including warning-free companion compatibility with
  the older drop-in's diagnostics schema.
• Reduced cold persistent-cache work by lazily loading diagnostics and numeric
  scripts and coalescing namespace/group generation-token resolution, with
  deterministic command and round-trip guardrails for cold requests.
• Made compatibility smoke tests fail on missing or mismatched plugins,
  unexpected PHP diagnostics, and post-install database errors; updated the exact
  WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, and Easy Digital Downloads fixtures and report them
  in bounded machine-readable output.
• Hardened configuration and failure diagnostics around stable reason codes,
  flat scalar TLS options, endpoint classification, partial-client cleanup,
  adversarial secret/key/value inputs, and bounded opt-in error logging.
• Defined the v1 standalone-primary and best-effort consistency boundary, with
  Site Health/WP-CLI topology classification and requested-versus-effective
  PhpRedis persistent connection reuse diagnostics.
• Replaced the ignored local performance baseline with controlled immutable-RC1
  and two-run candidate evidence, including reproducibility metadata, raw
  samples, deterministic network-work gates, dual-threshold runtime latency
  checks, and non-gating raw-backend controls for interpreting runner noise.

0.1.0-rc1

Initial release.