HANCORE-linux · Oct 15, 2026 · Oct 13, 2026 · Oct 13, 2026 · Oct 13, 2026 · Oct 13, 2026
diff --git a/.github/release-notes/v0.1.1-beta.16.4.md b/.github/release-notes/v0.1.1-beta.16.4.md
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+# Shibumi v0.1.1-beta.16.4
+
+## Highlights
+
+- **Memory Sweep in the Memory panel.** Choose Page cache, Compact memory, or both, with one Polkit authorization. Available memory before and after the operation, cancellation, and errors appear in the panel. No swap operations or process killing; clearing caches does not guarantee a memory gain.
+- **Frost for the V2 Notch shell.** Notch gains the translucent Frost surface; Full, Fit, and Dock keep their fixed shell shadow. Frost controls transparency, not compositor blur; an optional Hyprland recipe is documented without changing your compositor settings. Connected panels keep their own opacity.
+- **Charging plasma from 10%.** A confined plasma core and five short sparks replace the battery ring's previous charging effect. The water animation is unchanged.
+- **Reliable Rings placement.** Rings starts on the correct workspace after activation or reload, including when the target arrives after layout. Other workspace styles no longer animate an invisible Rings frame.
+- **Power-profile selection stays open.** Mouse and keyboard selection update the active profile without closing or shifting the panel. Inactive labels remain readable with V2 and Catppuccin Latte.
+- **Small reliability fixes.** Unavailable AI usage displays an em dash, picker actions receive closed stdin, and deferred focus callbacks safely handle a destroyed panel. The audio bar follows the default sink again if the volume-sink resolver stalls after suspend/resume (#78). During recovery, DSP chains may temporarily fall back to the default sink.
+- **Smoother host-widget handoff.** Shared embedding keeps Status children loaded through bar handoff and preserves the official Audio panel instance. Existing Omarchy paths and IPC identifiers now share one contract layer, without adding backend owners or polling.
+
+The forward compatibility reference is updated to Omarchy `4c1b4cb3`. Source installation remains the supported route; OPR packaging is planned, not AUR publication.
+
+## Install and update
+
+For a new source installation, use the published release tag:
+
+```bash
+sudo pacman -S --needed python jq curl networkmanager power-profiles-daemon upower xdg-utils libnotify wl-clipboard ttf-material-symbols-variable ttf-jetbrains-mono-nerd-basic noto-fonts-cjk adwaita-fonts
+git clone https://github.com/HANCORE-linux/Shibumi-Shell.git
+cd Shibumi-Shell
+git checkout v0.1.1-beta.16.4
+./scripts/shibumi-suite install --yes
+```
+
+Update an admitted Beta.16.3 installation from its existing checkout:
+
+```bash
+git fetch --tags
+git checkout v0.1.1-beta.16.4
+./scripts/shibumi-suite update --dry-run
+./scripts/shibumi-suite update --yes
+./scripts/shibumi-suite status
+```
+
+The exact Beta.16.3 tag (`1a13d6b`) and documented source-installation integration
+merge (`494fa69`) are admitted predecessors. Older supported identities retain
+their exact revision and payload checks; an arbitrary checkout with the same
+version is not admitted. Do not install or update from `main`, or delete
+lifecycle state to bypass admission. See the [installation and recovery guide](https://github.com/HANCORE-linux/Shibumi-Shell/blob/v0.1.1-beta.16.4/docs/install.md).
+AUR publication remains deferred.
+
+## Validation
+
+In 600 private-renderer sessions against Beta 16.3, the median per-group CPU change was **−29.7% for focus**, **−11.3% for style changes**, and **+0.14% for bar changes**. Rings style changes reached stable pixels earlier in all eight measured contexts, with median reductions of 40–217 ms. Bar switching was broadly at Beta 16.3's level. These measurements describe the tested renderer scenarios, not a blanket desktop speedup.
+
+## Known points
+
+- Notch can still oscillate at DPR 1.6.
+- Notification focus remains limited when the sender does not provide a supported application identity.
+- If Memory Sweep loses its service owner, the authorization dialog may disappear without a result. An already authorized command can continue, and a replacement owner may permit another run; avoid restarting Sweep during an owner change.
diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ SHIBUMI_INSTALLED_SOURCE_OMARCHY_PATH=/tmp/omarchy-installed-source-v4.0.4 \
   ./tests/omarchy-installed-source-parity-contract-regression.sh
 SHIBUMI_AGENTS_OMARCHY_PATH=/tmp/omarchy-v4.0.0 \
   ./tests/omarchy-agents-contract-regression.sh
-SHIBUMI_FORWARD_COMPAT_OMARCHY_PATH=/tmp/omarchy-forward-compat-50d687a1 \
+SHIBUMI_FORWARD_COMPAT_OMARCHY_PATH=/tmp/omarchy-forward-compat-4c1b4cb3 \
   ./tests/omarchy-forward-compat-contract-regression.sh
 ```
 

diff --git a/ARCHITECTURE.md b/ARCHITECTURE.md
@@ -403,6 +403,13 @@ Shibumi controls the bar window.
 
 ## Verified Host Contract
 
+`SuiteRuntime.HostContract` is the suite's single constant-only QML compatibility
+layer for first-party service admission, host marker/theme paths and IPC target
+names. Existing services retain handler ownership, file readers and the bounded
+visibility handoff; palette APIs and command routing are unchanged. Host versions
+remain in baseline manifests, which also supply the release collector's package
+probe expectations. The pinned Quattro contract binds this layer to host sources.
+
 The installed loader and installation contracts were rechecked against
 the validation system's Omarchy Quattro package `4.0.0.r1458.gfa6b5fc-1` on 2026-07-30.
 The plugin registry, validator, installer, bar selector, bar loader, and

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,29 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## [0.1.1-beta.16.4] - 2026-10-14
+
+### Highlights
+
+- **Memory Sweep in the Memory panel.** Choose Page cache, Compact memory, or both, with one Polkit authorization. Available memory before and after the operation, cancellation, and errors appear in the panel. No swap operations or process killing; clearing caches does not guarantee a memory gain.
+- **Frost for the V2 Notch shell.** Notch gains the translucent Frost surface; Full, Fit, and Dock keep their fixed shell shadow. Frost controls transparency, not compositor blur; an optional Hyprland recipe is documented without changing your compositor settings. Connected panels keep their own opacity.
+- **Charging plasma from 10%.** A confined plasma core and five short sparks replace the battery ring's previous charging effect. The water animation is unchanged.
+- **Reliable Rings placement.** Rings starts on the correct workspace after activation or reload, including when the target arrives after layout. Other workspace styles no longer animate an invisible Rings frame.
+- **Power-profile selection stays open.** Mouse and keyboard selection update the active profile without closing or shifting the panel. Inactive labels remain readable with V2 and Catppuccin Latte.
+- **Small reliability fixes.** Unavailable AI usage displays an em dash, picker actions receive closed stdin, and deferred focus callbacks safely handle a destroyed panel. The audio bar follows the default sink again if the volume-sink resolver stalls after suspend/resume (#78). During recovery, DSP chains may temporarily fall back to the default sink.
+- **Smoother host-widget handoff.** Shared embedding keeps Status children loaded through bar handoff and preserves the official Audio panel instance. Existing Omarchy paths and IPC identifiers now share one contract layer, without adding backend owners or polling.
+
+The forward compatibility reference is updated to Omarchy `4c1b4cb3`. Source installation remains the supported route; OPR packaging is planned, not AUR publication.
+
+### Validation
+
+In 600 private-renderer sessions against Beta 16.3, the median per-group CPU change was **−29.7% for focus**, **−11.3% for style changes**, and **+0.14% for bar changes**. Rings style changes reached stable pixels earlier in all eight measured contexts, with median reductions of 40–217 ms. Bar switching was broadly at Beta 16.3's level. These measurements describe the tested renderer scenarios, not a blanket desktop speedup.
+
+### Known points
+
+- Notch can still oscillate at DPR 1.6.
+- Notification focus remains limited when the sender does not provide a supported application identity.
+- If Memory Sweep loses its service owner, the authorization dialog may disappear without a result. An already authorized command can continue, and a replacement owner may permit another run; avoid restarting Sweep during an owner change.
+
 ## [0.1.1-beta.16.3] - 2026-10-09
 
 ### Fixed

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
@@ -16,9 +16,9 @@ process.</sub></p>
 [Documentation](docs/README.md) ·
 [Release status](docs/release-readiness.md)
 
-`0.1.1-beta.16.3` is the target GitHub prerelease. See the
-[release notes](.github/release-notes/v0.1.1-beta.16.3.md) for changes and the
-downgrade warning.
+`0.1.1-beta.16.4` is the target GitHub prerelease. See the
+[release notes](.github/release-notes/v0.1.1-beta.16.4.md) for changes. Before using an older version, read the
+[backup and downgrade warning](docs/install.md#backup-before-downgrade).
 The current pinned host contracts use Omarchy and Omarchy Settings `4.0.4-1`
 (source tag `v4.0.4`, revision `c668141e`) with Quickshell `0.3.1-1`; the
 4.0.3 and 4.0.2 manifests remain optional compatibility baselines.
@@ -65,24 +65,25 @@ for the latest validated host versions.
 > Install from the release tag, not `main`. Shibumi supports Omarchy Quattro only.
 
 ```bash
+sudo pacman -S --needed python jq curl networkmanager power-profiles-daemon upower xdg-utils libnotify wl-clipboard ttf-material-symbols-variable ttf-jetbrains-mono-nerd-basic noto-fonts-cjk adwaita-fonts
 git clone https://github.com/HANCORE-linux/Shibumi-Shell.git
 cd Shibumi-Shell
-git checkout v0.1.1-beta.16.3
+git checkout v0.1.1-beta.16.4
 ./scripts/shibumi-suite install --yes
 ```
 
-The installer asks for root privileges only while Pacman installs missing
-runtime commands and fonts; the Shibumi lifecycle itself runs as the desktop
-user and writes only user-scoped plugin state.
+Run the Pacman line yourself; it installs the runtime commands and fonts and
+is the only step that needs `sudo`. The Shibumi suite never calls Pacman: it
+runs as the desktop user and writes only user-scoped plugin state.
 
-Update an admitted Beta.16.2 source installation to Beta.16.3.
+Update an admitted Beta.16.3 source installation to Beta.16.4.
 Exact predecessor identities, not a version range, govern admission; see the
 [update guide](docs/install.md#update).
 
 ```sh
 cd Shibumi-Shell
 git fetch --tags
-git checkout v0.1.1-beta.16.3
+git checkout v0.1.1-beta.16.4
 ./scripts/shibumi-suite update --dry-run
 ./scripts/shibumi-suite update --yes
 ./scripts/shibumi-suite status

diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.1.1-beta.16.3
+0.1.1-beta.16.4