Kit Updated: 2026.5.15

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Kit 2026.5.15 is a broad compatibility and correctness release. It closes several Zig 0.16 migration gaps across networking, process spawning, filesystem metadata, compression, and task execution, while also hardening HTTP request setup and accepting structured HTTP header lists.

The release also tightens compiler cache and partition backend behavior. Several fixes keep globals live across partitioned codegen, preserve package and extern aliases, improve module record lowering, isolate package parity cache state, and make --no-cache builds bypass the backend cache as expected.

What Changed

Runtime and standard-library compatibility got a focused pass. Networking regressions from the Zig 0.16 transition were closed, interpreter process spawning was fixed, compression and task execution were brought back in line with the current runtime, and file metadata now uses compatibility helpers.

HTTP handling is stricter and more flexible at the same time: request setup has additional hardening, and APIs can now accept structured header lists. Time parsing also gained RFC1123 support, which is useful for HTTP-oriented workflows and other protocols that use that date format.

On the compiler side, the partition backend received a large set of liveness and initialization fixes. The release keeps global call results, aggregate globals, module record fields, closure alias globals, and package/module aliases available through partition lowering and cache reuse.

Package tooling also moved forward. Kit now supports package dev dependencies, fixes first-party Git dependency scoping and recursive package install copies, improves native C package debug builds, and adds release-status dashboard work alongside clearer panic diagnostics.

The final codegen follow-ups restore pretty log field formatting, fix partition value aliases and chained calls for known-arity closures, and close a Postgres ORM partition codegen regression.

Release Highlights

• Fix Zig 0.16 networking, process spawning, filesystem metadata, compression, and task compatibility gaps.
• Harden HTTP request setup and accept structured HTTP header lists.
• Add RFC1123 time parsing and allow record updates to append fields.
• Fix partition backend liveness, initialization, alias, register, and cache reuse regressions.
• Fix native backend cache invalidation and module lowering behavior.
• Add package dev dependencies and fix first-party Git dependency scoping.
• Improve panic diagnostics, release status reporting, and release pin tooling.
• Fix partition value aliases, known-arity closure calls, and Postgres ORM partition codegen.

Exact Changelog

The list below matches the 2026.5.15 changelog entry, with each short SHA linked to the corresponding GitLab commit in kit-lang.

• Fix Zig 0.16 networking regression gaps (266fc47)
• Preserve imported extern Zig aliases (cbeef32)
• Accept structured HTTP header lists (ba5680c)
• Add top-level builtin state regression (1e7446f)
• Fix interpreter process spawning on Zig 0.16 (0cebc21)
• Keep partition global call results live (b6cf445)
• Fix package alias initializer codegen (cfc2e38)
• Bypass backend cache for no-cache builds (d1f3279)
• Add RFC1123 time parsing (5e9b141)
• Allow record updates to append fields (ba19f3c)
• Harden HTTP request setup (9811fed)
• Use fs compatibility helpers in runtime file metadata (dc11897)
• Fix compression runtime compatibility (45e66be)
• Fix task execution and runtime compatibility gaps (ff39143)
• Fix native backend cache and module lowering (7d2d0fc)
• Fix module extern exports in partition backend (153b797)
• Fix package module record type fields (562c7a7)
• Fix local module records in partition backend (09ae7eb)
• Fix partition aggregate global liveness (627e7c3)
• Fix partition backend global initialization (d60c0cb)
• Remove incremental reuse debug output (620cf7f)
• Require manifests for fragment cache reconstruction (82ef793)
• Keep module record field globals live in partitions (be40fec)
• Trace closure alias globals in partition liveness (76b6e45)
• Fix partition cache reuse regressions (47103bd)
• Fix partition register global codegen (4921166)
• Fix first-party git dependency scoping (3b3d323)
• Update bump-version script for release pins (9532c99)
• feat(package): support dev dependencies (51d19b9)
• Improve Kit panic diagnostics (98b78fc)
• Add release status dashboard (f51142d)
• Fix native package parity preparation (f59dc5c)
• Fix partition unreachable diagnostics (dc18d57)
• Isolate package parity codegen cache (e76c6cd)
• Move release status summary after table (5dbc72a)
• Fix native C package debug builds (1bb9934)
• Fix partition global module alias collisions (1d28716)
• Fix partition closure capture initializers (51a4e59)
• Fix stdlib and codegen parity regressions (6cbc3f9)
• Fix build cache invalidation for compiler changes (bceca31)
• Suppress Zig child output for non-verbose builds (ab0d37f)
• Bumped Kit version to 2026.5.15 (e450ec7)
• Fix recursive package install copy (1dd74b6)
• Updated CHANGELOG.md (defccb7)
• Restore pretty log field formatting (a089ddd)
• Fix partition codegen value aliases (4b79950)
• Fix chained calls for known-arity closures (8176ca2)
• Close codegen regression workitems (fae302c)
• Fix Postgres ORM partition codegen (3db2582)