diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 43be118..d2fc7ab 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,10 +2,13 @@
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
-- drop support for PHP versions below 8.0
+- breaking change: require PHP 8.0+ and drop the old PHP 7.x compatibility shims
+- no additional public API removals from 3.1.0 to HEAD; the request/response API changes in this range are additive
 - upgrade phpstan to the current 2.x line and clean up PHP 8-only typing/fallbacks
-- add curl-inspired request helpers for bearer auth, retries/backoff, TLS trust controls, cookie persistence, Alt-Svc/HSTS caches, proxy routing, and HTTP/2 + HTTP/3 selection
+- add curl-inspired request helpers for bearer auth, retries/backoff, TLS trust controls, cookie persistence, Alt-Svc/HSTS caches, proxy routing, HTTP/2 + HTTP/3 selection, and async dispatch via `sendAsync()`
+- add missing curl-style helper aliases such as `authenticateWithBearerToken()`, `authenticateWithBasicAuth()`, `downloadTo()`, and `useHttp*()`
 - add response transfer-info helpers for effective URL, IPs, timings, redirect count, and negotiated HTTP version
+- preserve direct response stream bodies when `Response` is built from an existing stream without request/header parsing context
 - fix `withNtlmAuth()` so the curl auth option is preserved correctly
 - fix `retry_max_time` so the retry budget starts with the first retry decision instead of request preparation
 - add tests and phpstan-safe handle/type narrowing so the local CI pipeline is green again
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index fb3f2a6..9acc476 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -27,9 +27,11 @@ Features
  - Alt-Svc / HSTS Cache Helpers
  - Proxy / Routing Helpers (no-proxy, proxy tunnel, resolve, connect-to)
  - Request "Download"
+ - Async Request Helper (`Request::sendAsync()`)
  - Request "Templates"
  - Parallel Request (via curl_multi)
  - Transfer Metadata Helpers
+ - Curl-Style Alias Helpers (`downloadTo()`, `authenticateWith*()`, `useHttp*()`, ...)
  - PSR-3: Logger Interface
  - PSR-7: HTTP Message Interface
  - PSR-17: HTTP Factory Interface
@@ -93,6 +95,18 @@ $multi->start();
 ```php
 <?php
 
+$promise = \Httpful\Request::get('https://api.example.com/items')
+    ->authenticateWithBearerToken('secret-token')
+    ->sendAsync();
+
+$response = $promise->wait();
+
+echo $response->getCode() . "\n";
+```
+
+```php
+<?php
+
 $response = \Httpful\Request::get('https://api.example.com/items')
     ->withBearerToken('secret-token')
     ->withRetry(3)
@@ -115,6 +129,7 @@ composer require voku/httpful
 ```
 
 Requires PHP 8.0+.
+Compared with 3.1.0, the only intended breaking change is the PHP 8.0 minimum; the new request and response helpers are additive.
 
 ## Handlers