chore: prepare 0.8.23 release

[leehack]

Summary

Refreshed at 041e35b6ffc7dbe7dcc4a7722c3043044f1c2ffb against dee010e24f95a50f71830116087af6db3c6c7640: merged #486 is integrated normally, with exact-head CAS protection and no force-push. The eight-file release diff and all runtime pins remain unchanged. Fresh independent Astra review, all local gates and all 15 exact-head hosted checks pass. Draft remains held only for explicit release approval.

Prerequisite corrective PR #484 merged at ccc2d35633e3ca6347a697f19fde4944e0a8dbd0, closing P1 #483, and is integrated here by a normal merge without force-push.

Apple upgrade behavior: existing app constraints llamadart: ^0.8.22 with Apple companion ^0.0.17 can still resolve the new core patch while excluding companion 0.0.18. The merged hook now verifies the actual resolved companion and maintained SwiftPM runtime manifest before symbol lookup. That mismatched pair fails the build with actionable upgrade guidance; it cannot silently link the old v0.3.0 framework to v0.4.0 bindings. Consumers must update the companion constraint to ^0.0.18 alongside core ^0.8.23. The guard does not rewrite app constraints.

• Prepare core 0.8.23 with already-integrated native v0.4.0 and Web assets v0.1.43; no runtime pin, binding, or implementation changes in this PR.
• Coordinate already-prepared Apple companion 0.0.18, retain LiteRT companion 0.0.10, and replace temporary development overrides with compatible package installation snippets.
• Move Unreleased notes into 0.8.23 and disclose the known upstream grammar boundary limitation.

Production-readiness scope

This is a draft release-prep PR, not a publication action. Merging this versioned release-prep branch authorizes automatic companion-first publication and the core release, so it must not merge until the maintainer explicitly approves release.

Component	Prepared version / unchanged source pin
Core	0.8.23
llama.cpp native and Apple SwiftPM	llamadart-native@v0.4.0, upstream 5266f24da75dc449bd56cbed7addb9c8e4a6a73e
Apple llama.cpp companion	0.0.18, already prepared on main
Web assets	v0.1.43, manifest 111eefc3588842cebfe665b363378edca34924764610263e1eda5280dfcfaa27
LiteRT native / companion	v0.16.0-native.2 / 0.0.10, unchanged
LiteRT Web	@litert-lm/core@0.15.0, unchanged

The root-path chat example lock was regenerated by canonical pub resolution and changes only the core package version. Historical release docs are untouched. Core 0.8.22 must remain paired with Apple companion 0.0.17; the new pair is core 0.8.23 + companion 0.0.18.

Known limitations and independent follow-ups

• Native #76: published v0.4.0 rejects root ::= "a"{2000} at grammar sampler initialization; {1999} succeeds. The raw upstream fix is independent qualification work and is not included or mislabeled as a wrapper rebuild here.
• Older Android and NVIDIA/CUDA device coverage is explicitly unavailable and waived by the maintainer, not PASS.
• Existing unpatched image-size advisories remain tracked under #454, with the existing documentation image guard unchanged. This PR does not claim a completely clean dependency audit.
• Modern Pixel 9 Pro / Android 17 / Tensor G4 full and compact CPU qualification PASS on published v0.4.0, seven measured 32-token generations each with stories15M. Native archive SHA-256 756f4d3c4d020e2de4e26b029ebe9aad26073b4f14c425ce76d10e1c6922a73f; full selected android_armv9.0_1, compact android_armv8.0_1. Device source f43ada361ccde89ca1d2a0b57c10db87691b5a91 predates the Apple-only prebuild guard and release/docs changes; native artifact and generation code are unchanged. A disclosed six-line logging overlay identified the selected module without changing selection/inference; it was removed, and the original installed APK was restored without clearing user data. Independent Astra artifact/log/restoration audit passed. Durable evidence: /private/tmp/llamadart-pixel-0907/handoff.md and independent-astra-audit.md.
• Pixel's first full attempt was anomalously slow (median 9,351 ms) but completed. Two payload-identical full repeats returned normal medians 179/194 ms, alongside compact 175 ms. Cause remains unknown; the original observation is preserved and not called a proven regression or performance guarantee. This bounded modern CPU smoke does not establish full Android device-pool coverage.

Validation

• PASS: latest prerequisite fix: validate metadata-only release readiness evidence #486 exact-main CI 34163165448, including coverage aggregate; earlier Apple guard fix: reject incompatible Apple runtime companions #484 post-merge CI/LiteRT smoke/HF deployment also passed.
• PASS: canonical Flutter 3.47.1 / Dart 3.13.1 workspace preparation, whole-workspace format and analysis.
• PASS: strict verify_release_docs_versions.dart --release-prep (core 0.8.23, Apple 0.0.18, LiteRT 0.0.10, native v0.4.0).
• PASS: release-tier matrix inventory; Node 20 dependency installation, 7/7 website tests, production docs build and strict link validation.
• PASS on current integrated source: full serial VM 2,046 tests / 77 fixture-dependent skips; full Chrome 925/925; explicit release-doc companion-pin suite 24/24. No Dart or runtime production code changed in this release-prep diff.
• PASS: core dart pub publish --dry-run, 0 warnings, no publication.
• Expected publication ordering: pub.dev Apple 0.0.18 currently returns 404; LiteRT companion 0.0.10 returns 200. The existing post-merge workflow must publish Apple 0.0.18 before tagging the core; no publication was performed for this draft.
• Initial artifact download encountered HTTP 504; the exact published v0.4.0 macOS arm64 archive already verified in adoption was reused (SHA-256 95e76865fb444f3187da47398cfab03a0af3ad46da6a9026e1d490401401355a), without changing defaults or setting a local runtime override.

Review gates

• High-risk classifier: high-risk / artifactConsumer (package/release metadata); release and high-risk matrix rows were inventoried. Production runtime/consumer implementation is unchanged; branch-deletion testing is N/A to this version/docs-only diff. Existing release-doc companion-pin regressions passed within the full VM suite.
• Exact head: 041e35b6ffc7dbe7dcc4a7722c3043044f1c2ffb; current base dee010e24f95a50f71830116087af6db3c6c7640.
• Fresh independent Astra review PASS on exact head: identical eight-file release scope, unchanged merged guard/evaluator/workflows/pins, strict versions, publication ordering and current local command logs independently checked. Replacement CI 34163274481 SUCCESS; all 15 populated checks SUCCESS including coverage aggregate, LiteRT smokes, preview and non-required advisory. CLEAN/MERGEABLE; zero review threads. No GitHub automated review is present; independent Astra is separate evidence.
• The previously identified release-exposed Apple ABI blocker is corrected in merged fix: reject incompatible Apple runtime companions #484 with positive/negative real-hook coverage and independent Astra review. Fresh integrated Astra review found zero known PR-caused P1 regressions. Existing upstream defects above are separately disclosed, not called fixed. The draft remains held for explicit release approval.
• #485 is closed by merged fix: validate metadata-only release readiness evidence #486. Fresh current-head evidence now satisfies the exact-Git-derived metadata-only route using the unchanged existing verifier/test honestly, without fabricated changed tests. The evaluator returns expected unverifiedPrerequisites / externalPrerequisitesUnavailable / exit 2: repository-local evidence is internally consistent, not authenticated operational attestation. As documented in doc/high_risk_pre_merge_readiness.md, external App/auditor/environment/ruleset enforcement is intentionally unconfigured and is not a pending merge requirement. Current readiness uses manual repository-local review and evidence. Adopting external enforcement would require a separately approved governance project; this release does not request or configure it.
• No merge, tag, release, workflow dispatch, publication, settings, or pin mutation occurred.

[github-actions]

Chat app preview deployed for 041e35b.

• App: https://leehack-llamadart-chat-pr-482.static.hf.space
• Space: https://huggingface.co/spaces/leehack/llamadart-chat-pr-482
• Repo: leehack/llamadart-chat-pr-482