docs: add v0.0.99 release entry

[sandl99]

Summary

Adds the canonical July 30 release entry for v0.0.99 before the release tag is captured.
The entry covers all 37 merged PRs since v0.0.98 and bounds experimental or dormant work without presenting it as supported behavior.

Changes

• Adds docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx with the exact ## v0.0.99 heading, parser-safe MDX SPDX comment, summary, detailed release bullets, and published documentation routes.
• Records user-visible recovery, snapshot, shared-route, Hermes, readiness, inference, image, documentation, and release E2E changes.
• States that the managed-image selection and startup-profile contracts remain dormant and do not activate buildless onboarding.

Source summary:

• #7972 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records restored managed OpenClaw configuration modes during recovery.
• #7834 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records clone-bound pairing verification after snapshot restore.
• #7975 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records managed startup recovery coverage.
• #7960 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records dormant startup-profile coordination without activating a supported surface.
• #7856 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records persistence of the credential-free OpenClaw startup command.
• #7959 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records dormant startup-profile construction without changing onboarding.
• #7946 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records the internal startup-profile schema and transport contract.
• #7951 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records platform-pull cleanup before managed-image validation.
• #7949 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records rejection of retained Hermes uv build cache metadata.
• #7597 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records separate command and agent first-turn latency evidence.
• #7931 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records focused E2E replacement evidence for retired selectors.
• #7950 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records exclusion of build-only BuildKit telemetry from the Deep Agents Code probe.
• #7665 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records consolidated priority 2 E2E coverage.
• #7911 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records the corrected NVIDIA DORI installation pin.
• #7934 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records the staging image-family wait before Brev Launchable deployment.
• #7772 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records dormant managed-image selection contracts without activating buildless onboarding.
• #7941 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records corrected agent-specific provider and policy guidance.
• #7819 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records removal of empty Deep Agents Code provider-switch sections.
• #7932 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records independent credential-generation E2E execution.
• #7840 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records shared-route preservation and pre-delete peer validation during upgrades.
• #7874 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records the split between pre-tag release entries and post-tag Announcements.
• #7876 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records the writable Hermes runtime root within lockdown.
• #7756 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records validated multi-platform managed-image publication.
• #7914 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records accepted uv version metadata in Hermes image validation.
• #7686 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records the explicitly experimental Microsoft Entra runtime identity reference.
• #7869 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records classified gateway relaunch quarantine and rebuild guidance.
• #7814 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records state restore into replacement sandboxes and SQLite write verification.
• #7839 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records quieter onboarding test execution without a user-facing behavior claim.
• #7854 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records generalized agent-selection guidance.
• #7845 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records isolated CDI test evidence without a user-facing behavior claim.
• #7843 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records the corrected Omni sub-agent model ID.
• #7908 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records reviewed Hermes and Deep Agents Code dependency pins.
• #7887 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records rejection of a symlinked DGX Station release marker.
• #7747 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records the internal compute-driver separation without a user-facing behavior claim.
• #7660 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records atomic publication of rebuild recovery manifests.
• #7661 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records bounded local inference health-response retention.
• #7654 -> docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx: Records state preservation across supervisor relaunch recovery.

Type of Change

• Code change (feature, bug fix, or refactor)
• Code change with doc updates
• Doc only (prose changes, no code sample modifications)
• Doc only (includes code sample changes)

Quality Gates

• Tests added or updated for changed behavior
• Existing tests cover changed behavior — justification: test/changelog-docs.test.ts validates the dated changelog contract, SPDX comment, version heading, and published routes.
• Tests not applicable — justification:
• Docs updated for user-facing behavior changes
• Docs not applicable — justification:
• Sensitive paths changed (security, policy, credentials, preflight, onboarding, inference, runner, sandbox, or messaging)
• Sensitive-path review completed or maintainer-approved waiver recorded — reviewer/approval link/justification:
• Non-success, skipped, or missing CI check accepted by maintainer — check name, approval link, and follow-up issue:

Documentation Writer Review

• Documentation writer subagent reviewed the completed changes
• Result: docs-updated
• Evidence: docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx; the documentation-only diff passed review against WRITING.md, the controlled word list, and docs/CONTRIBUTING.md. The review covered terminology, structure, active voice, release meaning, product-scope boundaries, and link and code presentation. Changelog tests passed 6/6, and the docs build reported 0 errors with 2 pre-existing warnings.
• Agent: Codex CLI

DGX Station Hardware Evidence

• Tested on DGX Station
• Tested commit:
• Station profile/scenario:
• Result:
• Supporting evidence:

Verification

• PR description includes a Signed-off-by: line and every commit appears as Verified in GitHub
• Normal pre-commit, commit-msg, and pre-push hooks passed, or npm run validate:pr passed after refreshing origin/main when hooks were skipped or unavailable
• Targeted behavior tests pass for the current change set, or tests are marked not applicable above — command/result or justification: npx vitest run test/changelog-docs.test.ts passed 6/6 tests.
• Applicable broad gate passed — npm test for broad runtime/test-harness changes; npm run check for repo-wide validation/coverage changes — command/result: Not applicable to this documentation-only release entry.
• Quality Gates section completed with required justifications or waivers
• No secrets, API keys, or credentials committed
• npm run docs builds without warnings (doc changes only) — result: Build passed with 0 errors and 2 pre-existing warnings.
• Doc pages follow the style guide (doc changes only)
• New doc pages include SPDX header and frontmatter (new pages only)

---

Signed-off-by: San Dang sdang@nvidia.com

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation
  • Added release notes for v0.0.99 covering snapshot restoration, sandbox recovery, gateway route upgrades, and Hermes security updates.
  • Documented experimental Microsoft Entra runtime identity support and enhanced readiness checks.
  • Added details on managed image validation, trusted CI image promotion, and end-to-end release evidence.

[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The PR adds the v0.0.99 changelog. It documents snapshot restoration, sandbox recovery, gateway routes, Hermes lockdown, runtime identity, readiness checks, managed images, CI image promotion, documentation, and release E2E evidence.

Changes

Release documentation

Layer / File(s)	Summary
v0.0.99 changelog entry docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx	Adds release notes for snapshot restore, recovery behavior, route credential changes, Hermes permissions, runtime identity, health checks, image validation, CI image promotion, documentation, and E2E evidence.

Estimated code review effort: 1 (Trivial) | ~5 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• NVIDIA/NemoClaw#7910: Updates an adjacent release changelog with related sandbox image pinning and validation changes.

Suggested reviewers: cv, jyaunches

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the addition of the v0.0.99 changelog entry.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch docs/release-prep-v0.0.99

---

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[github-actions]

🌿 Preview your docs: https://nvidia-preview-pr-7992.docs.buildwithfern.com/nemoclaw

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 2

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In `@docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx`:
- Line 8: Format the technical literal values in the changelog entry as inline
code, including the release version, size limit, image and DORI versions, sample
count, and the additional values at the referenced locations. Preserve the
surrounding prose and wording.
- Around line 1-4: Replace the JSX block comment wrapping the SPDX header in the
MDX file with an HTML comment, preserving the existing copyright and license
text exactly.

🪄 Autofix (Beta)

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

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ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.yaml

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Enterprise

Run ID: aba895ec-4895-4582-94b1-8187e2695c10

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 387cb08 and 200940f.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• docs/changelog/2026-07-30.mdx

[github-actions]

PR Review Advisor — No blocking findings reported

Advisor assessment: No blocking advisor findings reported
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Model lanes

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• Model comparison: normalized findings match; normalized E2E selections match; severity counts match.

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Recommended E2E: None

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