ChatGPT Interfaces — Release Notes v0.1.41 (UNAPPROVED DEVELOPMENT BUILD)

Base: deployed v0.1.40 (user-reported). Status: NOT RELEASE-READY; do not deploy.

Implemented in the source build

• Integrated pre-staging approval checks for the self-update route in lib/common.php, using lib/release-approval.php.
• Exact version and SHA-256 matching against a protected approval record; invalid/missing records reject staging.
• Bundled external release gate, approval issuance utility and negative regression tests under tools/.
• Added current development status and limitations to the release record.

Not implemented or not verified

• No trusted independent semantic documentation review or release approval has been completed.
• No protected production approval service is installed. Current implementation uses HMAC rather than asymmetric signing; production key custody and independent approval authority remain unverified.
• External updater installation paths now contain a pre-install approval check in both bundled and sibling updater copies. The verifier is loaded from the installed updater rather than the untrusted staged release, correcting a trust-boundary defect found in checkpoint 4. Local negative-path tests pass; live deployment and other bypass paths remain unverified.
• No live integration, rollback, persistent-data, credential-preservation or browser acceptance tests were performed.
• Backlog dashboard has been relabeled as unreconciled v0.1.41 development; full content-level audit and backlog reconciliation remain open.
• A local 28-test regression run passed, including release gate and deployment authorization tests; this does not establish production behavior.
• The current audit is NOT VERIFIED and the package must be rejected by the release gate.

Release decision

BLOCKED until content-level review, documentation repairs, independent evidence and end-to-end deployment authorization are complete. This is a development checkpoint, not an approved deployment ZIP.

Source-backed review

See Source-Backed-Reconciliation-v0.1.41.md. The review identifies verified source paths and outstanding evidence gaps; it is not independent semantic acceptance.

Checkpoint 11 documentation-only changes (UNAPPROVED)

Added package-contained current development handoff, continuity baseline and independent verification matrix; incorporated CI-CONT-001 into release specification, backlog and requirements reconciliation; updated installation guide and corrected inherited-spec provenance. Application and updater runtime code unchanged. CI-CONT-001 and release authorization remain BLOCKED.