docs(release): curate the v1.7.126-alpha changelog and What's New entry

create-release.sh builds the frontend at step 4 and validates the curated
changelog at step 5, then requires the freshly built bundle to contain the new
version. The version reaches the bundle only through the hand-written What's
New list, so on a fresh release that check can only pass if the changelog and
What's New entries are written BEFORE the script runs. Writing them after is
what aborted the first attempt.

Leads with the downgrade bug, since that is the one users saw: an Update button
offering the release withdrawn for an actively exploited 2FA bypass.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,5 +1,16 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## v1.7.126-alpha (2026-08-07)
+
+- **The most important fix in this release: the update button could take you backwards onto a version withdrawn for a security hole.** BTCPay Server published 2.4.2 to close a flaw that was being actively exploited — a way past two-factor authentication. Nodes that had already moved to 2.4.2 were then shown an "Update" button offering 2.3.9, the very release being withdrawn, and taking it would have rolled the node back onto the vulnerable version. The cause was that the node only asked whether the two version numbers differed, never which was newer, so any stale record anywhere could present a rollback as an upgrade. It now refuses to offer a lower version as an update, so a stale record fails safe instead of becoming a trap. BTCPay itself is on 2.4.2, and every place that still named the old version — including the fallback installer, which would have installed it outright — has been corrected.
+- **An app now reports its own version, not a helper's.** Where an app is made of several parts, the node could read the version of the wrong part: BTCPay showed as "15.17", which is the version of its database, while offering an update to 2.4.2. That is the number update decisions are made from, so a nonsensical pair was being presented as a legitimate upgrade. When the node cannot identify an app's own container it now says so rather than guessing at a neighbour.
+- **Your node issues its own certificate, so apps stop being flagged as insecure.** Each node now has its own certificate authority, with a one-step install from Settings, and app screens are served over the same secure connection as the dashboard rather than dropping back to an unprotected one. Apps answer on both the secure and plain address on the same port, so nothing that worked before stops working.
+- **An app that is still starting says "starting".** It previously reported "App not reachable", which reads as a failure when the app is simply warming up.
+- **Updates and app downloads now come from a proper domain name.** They previously used a bare numeric address over an unprotected connection. Downloads are now encrypted in transit, and the old address is kept as an automatic fallback for nodes whose clock or name lookup is off — the signature, not the address, is what makes either source safe.
+- Also in this release: the tool app developers run to check their app description no longer rejects every valid file (it needed a program most machines do not have, and reported the missing program as a broken file); and the node's own security audit, which had been reporting all-clear, now actually inspects the files where credentials had been sitting.
+- Housekeeping, disclosed rather than buried: this release removes Archipelago's own infrastructure details from the published source — machine names, addresses and internal working notes — ahead of the code being opened to the public. No behaviour changes for your node.
+- Known gaps, unchanged from the last release: three voice-assistant ports remain open without authentication. Non-browser clients — phone apps for Vaultwarden, Home Assistant or Jellyfin, and git over the web — meet the login page and need an access token. The 5x real-node lifecycle gate was not run for this release.
+
 ## v1.7.125-alpha (2026-08-06)
 
 - **The Lightning, Bitcoin, Electrum and mesh screens work again behind the login gate.** Since the gate went up, those screens loaded their frame and then showed every number as unreachable. The gate was deliberately hiding your login from the apps it protects — right for third-party apps, wrong for the node's own screens, which need that login to fetch your data. The gate now removes only its own credential, and the node's own screens explicitly receive yours. The same mistake was also quietly signing you out of apps with their own logins — Vaultwarden, Nextcloud, Gitea — on every single request; that stops too.

core/Cargo.lock

@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "archipelago"
-version = "1.7.125-alpha"
+version = "1.7.126-alpha"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "archipelago-container",

core/archipelago/Cargo.toml

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "archipelago"
-version = "1.7.125-alpha"
+version = "1.7.126-alpha"
 edition = "2021"
 description = "Archipelago Bitcoin Node OS - Native backend"
 authors = ["Archipelago Team"]

neode-ui/package-lock.json

@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 {
   "name": "neode-ui",
-  "version": "1.7.125-alpha",
+  "version": "1.7.126-alpha",
   "lockfileVersion": 3,
   "requires": true,
   "packages": {
     "": {
       "name": "neode-ui",
-      "version": "1.7.125-alpha",
+      "version": "1.7.126-alpha",
       "dependencies": {
         "@scure/bip39": "^2.2.0",
         "@types/dompurify": "^3.0.5",

neode-ui/package.json

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "neode-ui",
   "private": true,
-  "version": "1.7.125-alpha",
+  "version": "1.7.126-alpha",
   "type": "module",
   "scripts": {
     "start": "./start-dev.sh",

neode-ui/src/views/settings/AccountInfoSection.vue

@@ -362,6 +362,24 @@ init()
               </button>
             </div>
             <div class="overflow-y-auto flex-1 min-h-0 space-y-6 pr-1">
+              <!-- v1.7.126-alpha -->
+              <div>
+                <div class="flex items-center gap-2 mb-3">
+                  <span class="text-xs font-mono px-2 py-0.5 rounded bg-orange-500/20 text-orange-300">v1.7.126-alpha</span>
+                  <span class="text-xs text-white/40">August 7, 2026</span>
+                </div>
+                <div class="space-y-3 text-sm text-white/80 pl-3 border-l border-white/10">
+                  <p><strong>The most important fix in this release: the update button could take you backwards onto a version withdrawn for a security hole.</strong> BTCPay Server published 2.4.2 to close a flaw that was being actively exploited — a way past two-factor authentication. Nodes that had already moved to 2.4.2 were then shown an "Update" button offering 2.3.9, the very release being withdrawn, and taking it would have rolled the node back onto the vulnerable version. The cause was that the node only asked whether the two version numbers differed, never which was newer, so any stale record anywhere could present a rollback as an upgrade. It now refuses to offer a lower version as an update, so a stale record fails safe instead of becoming a trap. BTCPay itself is on 2.4.2, and every place that still named the old version — including the fallback installer, which would have installed it outright — has been corrected.</p>
+                  <p><strong>An app now reports its own version, not a helper's.</strong> Where an app is made of several parts, the node could read the version of the wrong part: BTCPay showed as "15.17", which is the version of its database, while offering an update to 2.4.2. That is the number update decisions are made from, so a nonsensical pair was being presented as a legitimate upgrade. When the node cannot identify an app's own container it now says so rather than guessing at a neighbour.</p>
+                  <p><strong>Your node issues its own certificate, so apps stop being flagged as insecure.</strong> Each node now has its own certificate authority, with a one-step install from Settings, and app screens are served over the same secure connection as the dashboard rather than dropping back to an unprotected one. Apps answer on both the secure and plain address on the same port, so nothing that worked before stops working.</p>
+                  <p><strong>An app that is still starting says "starting".</strong> It previously reported "App not reachable", which reads as a failure when the app is simply warming up.</p>
+                  <p><strong>Updates and app downloads now come from a proper domain name.</strong> They previously used a bare numeric address over an unprotected connection. Downloads are now encrypted in transit, and the old address is kept as an automatic fallback for nodes whose clock or name lookup is off — the signature, not the address, is what makes either source safe.</p>
+                  <p>Also in this release: the tool app developers run to check their app description no longer rejects every valid file, and the node's own security audit — which had been reporting all-clear — now actually inspects the files where credentials had been sitting.</p>
+                  <p>Housekeeping, disclosed rather than buried: this release removes Archipelago's own infrastructure details from the published source ahead of the code being opened to the public. No behaviour changes for your node.</p>
+                  <p>Known gaps, unchanged from the last release: three voice-assistant ports remain open without authentication. Non-browser clients — phone apps for Vaultwarden, Home Assistant or Jellyfin, and git over the web — meet the login page and need an access token. The 5x real-node lifecycle gate was not run for this release.</p>
+                </div>
+              </div>
+
               <!-- v1.7.125-alpha -->
               <div>
                 <div class="flex items-center gap-2 mb-3">