v0.4.4

New Features

• Native-only host builds (Windows): the build graph now infers web use from app.zon — a .frontend block, the "webview" capability, a .shell webview view, or the Chromium engine — and an app that declares none of them compiles its Windows host without the embedded WebView layer: no WebView2 header, no WebView2Loader.dll installed, staged, or referenced by the executable. A new .webview_layer = "auto"|"include"|"exclude" manifest field (and -Dweb-layer) overrides the inference, an exclude that contradicts a web declaration is rejected at validate, configure, and package time, and a native-only build that reaches webview creation at runtime fails fast with a teaching WebViewLayerNotBuilt error. native check and the package report print the web-layer verdict, and a CI cross-audit asserts the presence/absence of the loader reference in real cross-compiled executables (#107).
• Native-only host builds (Linux): the WebKitGTK compile seam mirrors the Windows one — an app whose app.zon declares no web use compiles its GTK host with NATIVE_SDK_ALLOW_WEBKITGTK_STUB, so the executable neither links webkitgtk-6.0 nor references any webkit_/jsc_ symbol, building needs no WebKitGTK development package, and users need no libwebkitgtk at runtime. The web-layer auditor (tools/audit_web_layer.zig) grew a hand-rolled ELF reader (DT_NEEDED entries + dynamic symbols) that CI runs both ways: the native-only fixture must scan clean even with the dev package installed, and the Linux canvas smoke now builds on a runner without WebKitGTK at all. native package refuses to package a WebKitGTK-linking binary under a native-only decision, record→replay and automation-driven sessions are pinned on native-only apps, and the macOS GPU dashboard smoke asserts a native-only app spawns zero WebKit helper processes (#110).

Improvements

• Zig 0.16 guidance: a new zig skill (native skills get zig) maps each pre-0.16 std idiom's compile error to the current one — std.Io file IO and writers, unmanaged ArrayList, main(std.process.Init), spawning, clocks, {t}/{f} formatting, build.zig modules — with the same content for humans as the docs' Zig 0.16 Notes page; the native-ui skill carries the short table, and a failing native build|test|dev now points at the catalog when std members come up missing (#105).
• Lazy Linux WebView startup: GTK windows now create only GTK chrome at window creation and materialize the main WebKitWebView on first web use, so canvas-only apps do not start WebKit processes on Linux; child-WebView bridge responses no longer require a main WebView to exist (#106).

Contributors

• @ctate
• @WhiteHades