## Release range

- Previous release: `v0.0.117` at `95ff29e5df737aa02e25df7eddee79d5da61896a`
- Candidate: `c3f309f2f344a4b25e58d204e0b423e54a4cb379`
- Candidate selection: current-main
- Commits: 46
- Risky files detected: 110

## QA context

### Risky areas

- Workflow / enforcement
- Credentials / inference
- Sandbox / policy / SSRF
- Installer / bootstrap
- Onboarding / host glue

### Suggested test focus

- Fresh install and upgrade paths
- Onboarding wizard and sandbox creation
- Policy enforcement, network egress, and SSRF protections
- CI checks, pre-commit hooks, and DCO declarations
- Credential storage and inference provider routing

## Canonical release entry

- Path: `docs/changelog/2026-09-01.mdx`
- Entry:

{/*
 * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 */}

## v0.0.118

NemoClaw v0.0.118 adds headless package boundaries for Hermes lifecycle planning and credential-free external OpenShell gateway health checks.
It improves fail-closed sandbox destruction, rebuild, onboarding, Shields, inference, and Hermes recovery.
It also broadens Deferred N1x detection and gives N1x managed vLLM a dedicated serving profile.

- The new `nemoclaw/lifecycle` package export supports deterministic Hermes 0.19.0 lifecycle planning and read-only agent observation with OpenShell 0.0.106.
  Callers provide the observation capability; the package does not own transport, authentication, persistence, or mutation.
  The Blueprint Runner can also check a configured external OpenShell gateway through the pinned SDK without credentials or mutation.
  Related changes: [PR #10703](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10703) and [PR #10618](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10618).
- OpenClaw sandbox destruction now detects Shields-locked Mcporter configuration before mutation and provides recovery guidance.
  `destroy --force` can continue only for retained OpenClaw Mcporter entries, while Hermes and ordinary MCP mutations remain fail-closed.
  Related change: [PR #10483](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10483).
- Rebuild now stops before deleting the original sandbox when any declared state directory or file cannot be preserved, including with `--force`.
  When cleanup fails, NemoClaw retains the incomplete snapshot at the reported path.
  It excludes the snapshot from `snapshot list` and restore selection.
  The directory can contain unsanitized credentials. Keep it owner-only.
  Do not restore, copy, share, or edit it.
  Repair access to the original sandbox state.
  Remove the retained directory only after you verify that the original sandbox or a complete snapshot contains every required state item.
  Confirm that the reported path is absent. Then rerun the operation.
  A failed nested onboarding result no longer proceeds to restore or report success.
  Related changes: [PR #10686](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10686) and [PR #10590](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10590).
- Fresh onboarding now ends the OpenShell create handoff after receiving a validated durable sandbox ID, then settles and verifies identity before post-create effects.
  This prevents affected WSL2 ARM OpenClaw sandboxes from moving from Ready to Error while publication metadata is still settling.
  Related change: [PR #10789](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10789).
- Hermes stopped-sandbox recovery reuses verified lifecycle and inference state. It still rolls back failures and performs final readiness qualification.
  Hermes dashboards behind a reverse proxy also accept the hostname from a validated HTTPS `CHAT_UI_URL` for HTTP and WebSocket requests while remaining bound to loopback.
  Related changes: [PR #10641](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10641) and [PR #10687](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10687).
- Inference status now queries the selected gateway instead of implicitly using the default gateway. Hugging Face model downloads with no output abort after a bounded stall timeout.
  Managed vLLM accepts a catalog short name, full Hugging Face model ID, or registered served model name as aliases for the same model. Onboarding normalizes known aliases when it reuses an existing managed vLLM endpoint, while pull-request CI verifies pinned Hugging Face references without credentials.
  Related changes: [PR #10698](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10698), [PR #10352](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10352), and [PR #10429](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10429).
- Shields status for Hermes now remains read-only instead of repairing mutable state during observation.
  Related change: [PR #10710](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10710).
- DGX Station Express host preparation now ignores NemoClaw and OpenShell agent processes owned by another user for non-root and `sudo` controllers. It still blocks the controller agent processes and keeps direct-root agent checks, vLLM conflicts, and Docker conflicts host-wide.
  Related change: [PR #10689](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10689).
- Deferred N1x preview detection now accepts NVIDIA display-class GPUs without requiring one PCI device ID and recognizes OEM DGX Spark FastOS identity.
  N1x managed vLLM uses a dedicated Qwen3.6 35B NVFP4 serving profile with a physically exercised memory, context, concurrency, and batching envelope; N1x remains Deferred pending complete Express end-to-end validation.
  Related changes: [PR #10099](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10099), [PR #10721](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10721), and [PR #10625](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10625).

## Documentation coverage

- Latest included cumulative docs PR: [#10680](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10680), merged at `11c868eec0d1984b7d57ff29abe24765aad395ac`.
- Final PR commit and merge commit: `605e1af35b997a41b725401fef5ffe28899023b9`; `11c868eec0d1984b7d57ff29abe24765aad395ac`.
- Final automated refresh coverage commit: `2b7ae7fed4dd1e0aa0363ef488e643c3c9d424c3`.
- Later commits and merged PRs: `19354d63db24ed3983166a194f43c163c3156b4f` ([#10757](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10757), E2E-only); `11c868eec0d1984b7d57ff29abe24765aad395ac` ([#10680](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10680), cumulative docs); `4b33ec7a0282760adaacf5f055972f58b0946d33` ([#10429](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10429), product change); `c67be3984f2d629ed767393ddefd32c403efb2f9` ([#10689](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10689), product change); `14a287e93cb6e487e2ed6cf189a6bb5bbcfedacc` ([#10797](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10797), reviewed release entry); `c3f309f2f344a4b25e58d204e0b423e54a4cb379` ([#10802](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10802), reviewed completion covering #10429 and #10689).
- Changed paths: cumulative PR #10680 changed only `docs/reference/commands.mdx`, an allowed `docs/**` path. Release-entry PRs #10797 and #10802 changed only `docs/changelog/2026-09-01.mdx`.
- Review and checks: #10680 was approved at exact final commit; all checks passed or were intentionally skipped. #10797 and #10802 completed all checks successfully and had no unresolved findings; both received independent documentation review. GitHub recorded no separate human approval decision for the two direct release-entry PRs.
- Open managed docs PRs: draft [#10800](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/pull/10800), head `325545fa43828206c3316030daec9d615e553b02`, based on earlier commit `4b33ec7a0282760adaacf5f055972f58b0946d33`.
- Maintainer decision: Proceed with the candidate as shown.

## Base and managed image evidence

- Base-image candidate: `c3f309f2f344a4b25e58d204e0b423e54a4cb379`
- Evidence: candidate E2E workflow attempt 1 [run 33549819572](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/actions/runs/33549819572), created `2026-09-01T19:29:45Z`, completed successfully and last updated `2026-09-01T19:48:34Z`. The applicable `base-image-publication` verifier [job 99999777855](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/actions/runs/33549819572/job/99999777855) succeeded from `2026-09-01T19:40:45Z` through `2026-09-01T19:41:52Z`.

## General E2E decision

- Newest identifiable full manual main run: none found in the latest 100 workflow-dispatch runs.
- Displayed candidate run: [E2E / Main and Manual Suite attempt 1](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/actions/runs/33549819572) for `c3f309f2f344a4b25e58d204e0b423e54a4cb379`; created `2026-09-01T19:29:45Z`, started `2026-09-01T19:29:45Z`, last updated `2026-09-01T19:48:34Z`, status `completed`, conclusion `success`, and about 20 minutes old at inspection `2026-09-01T19:49:28Z`.
- Release qualification: [job 100002069671](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/actions/runs/33549819572/job/100002069671), status `completed`, conclusion `skipped`, started `2026-09-01T19:47:54Z`, completed `2026-09-01T19:47:53Z`; this push run did not select the full suite. The selected Jetson target and `Relevant E2E` aggregate succeeded; 32 unselected jobs were skipped. No focused or full rerun was requested.
- Maintainer choice: Proceed with the status as shown.

Exceptions: No successful full manual run covers the candidate because E2E tests are actively being worked on by the team and may be unstable at this point; the maintainer chose to proceed with the successful candidate push run and required image verifier.