Core v1.1.0 release notes

Release date: 2026-08-30

Foundry Core v1.1.0 is a compatible feature release for faster portable site creation, more faithful existing-site reconstruction, typed Foundry controls, stronger searchability, and safer future restructuring. It also establishes one fail-visible footer identity contract and raises the managed development toolchain to Go 1.27 and Hugo Extended 0.165.0.

This Core release does not promote Foundry Distribution, update a consumer lock, materialize files into a consumer, or deploy a site. Those remain separate, explicitly authorized operations.

Highlights

• Theme-led, dry-run-first foundry new-site creation with explicit Site Type, Site Blueprint, creative direction, and write consent.
• A deterministic, read-only asset inventory and existing-site field migration audit. The audit separates safe upgrades, normalizations, and manual review; it never rewrites a consumer site.
• Typed public rendering contracts across all 18 Section families, 82 block renderers, and 1,435 governed fields. Portable literals are registered in the translation catalogs instead of being silently embedded in templates.
• Manifest-driven shared header data, utility actions, primary CTA, optional contact bar, and page-level shell controls.
• Typed discovery metadata, rendered discoverability validation, static Pagefind integration, a no-JavaScript browse fallback, canonical URL change reporting, and read-only internal-link opportunity reporting.
• Accessible build-time Markdown bar charts and static GoAT diagrams without a visitor JavaScript or Node build dependency.
• Hugo-generated, minified, fingerprinted syntax-highlighting CSS.
• Go and Hugo lifecycle reporting that distinguishes upstream facts from Foundry’s tested floors.

Footer identity

Core now owns one dependable footer identity:

1. exactly one visible Built by Likestyle with Foundry link points to https://likestyle.com/foundry/;
2. the site name and site release version are the primary identity line;
3. the owner-facing Foundry bundle version is a quieter secondary line; and
4. the technical Core module identity remains separate machine-readable diagnostic metadata.

The local identity wrapper no longer depends on a consumer visibility setting or an available client-side attribution service. Optional managed attribution state can affect only its optional region; it cannot remove the required link or local version identity.

Site version resolution is HUGO_SITE_VERSION, root .site-version, params.foundry.versions.site, then the established portable fallback. Foundry bundle version resolution is HUGO_FOUNDRY_VERSION, params.foundry.versions.foundry or bundle, then bundle.version in foundry.lock.yaml. Missing or invalid optional values are omitted cleanly.

Included v1.0.2 repairs

The v1.1 line carries forward the compatible v1.0.2 fixes even though the v1.0.2 maintenance commit remains on its own LTS branch:

• repeated automatic table-of-contents widgets receive unique document IDs;
• legacy CSS and retired Tailwind partial shadows are detected;
• testimonial star ratings expose explicit accessible image semantics;
• WebKit table-of-contents state remains synchronized;
• image-backed heroes preserve the shared page gutter;
• Safari automation recovery targets only its WebDriver-created window; and
• Quiet Editorial related reading uses the portable curated-selection contract.

Compatibility and migration

This release is additive within the v1 contract family. Existing legacy field shapes continue to render through compatibility paths, while the new migration audit identifies where a site can adopt native typed controls. Upgrading does not authorize automatic source rewriting.

Before adopting v1.1.0 in a consumer:

1. update the consumer’s approved Go and Hugo toolchain to Go 1.27 and Hugo Extended 0.165.0;
2. run foundry migrate audit --root <site> --json and review every manual item;
3. rehearse the exact consumer source against the exact Core tag in an isolated worktree or disposable clone;
4. inspect the rendered footer identity, responsive layouts, search output, and any reported field normalization; and
5. update the consumer lock/materialized files and deploy only under that consumer’s own authorization and release process.

Sites that materialize Foundry files must use their normal Distribution or managed upgrade path. Do not copy files from this repository over consumer overrides by hand.

Release evidence

• Exact implementation candidate: 77d52a04c25781558b5e42fb1663f8544c84f220.
• The final tagged tree passes the complete Go test suite, go vet, the Node-free Core Doctor/release checklist, all 23 Hugo compatibility fixtures, and visual-example validation. The exact implementation commit above passed the required Safari browser smoke before these documentation-only release changes; a same-tree rerun was blocked by the host’s administrator-gated SafariDriver enablement, not by a fixture failure.
• Chromium review covers the shared responsive fixture matrix, including desktop, mobile, tablet, short-landscape, 390px, 320px reflow, keyboard focus, forced colors, 44px attribution targeting, and overflow checks.
• Two clean, disposable consumer-source canaries render successfully against the exact release tree without editing their canonical checkouts. Adoption and deployment remain separate.

The v1.0.2 maintenance tag is not an ancestor of v1.1.0 because the two release trains were maintained independently from v1.0.1. Its applicable source fixes were explicitly forward-ported and verified in this release rather than merged through a conflict-heavy administrative ancestry merge.