jwvanderstam · Nov 11, 2026 · Nov 11, 2026
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,9 +8,22 @@ reasoning attached, in [docs/history/LESSONS_LEARNED.md](docs/history/LESSONS_LE
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
-**Upgrading.** A deployment that uses the cloud fallback must set `CLOUD_BASE_URL` (for
-OpenAI, `https://api.openai.com/v1`) and drop any `provider/` prefix from `CLOUD_MODEL`.
-`CLOUD_PROVIDER` is no longer read. No migrations.
+## [3.6.0] — 2026-11-11
+
+The release of the QP-9 review's open findings (QP-10): R-8 to R-12 and item 13 are fixed,
+along with four found by the separate reviews of those fixes. It also replaces `litellm`
+with a direct OpenAI-compatible client (QP-11, ADR-4). A minor rather than a patch, because
+`main` carries that feature; see `CONTRIBUTING.md`.
+
+**Upgrading from 3.5.0.**
+
+- A deployment that uses the cloud fallback must set `CLOUD_BASE_URL` (for OpenAI,
+  `https://api.openai.com/v1`) and drop any `provider/` prefix from `CLOUD_MODEL`.
+  `CLOUD_PROVIDER` is no longer read.
+- Migration 0024 (additive: `users.tokens_valid_after`) applies at startup.
+- The image keeps the settings page's values and fine-tuned rerankers on a new `app_data`
+  volume. Values held in the old container are not carried over, so set them once more
+  after the upgrade (see Changed).
 
 ### Security
 
@@ -36,6 +49,14 @@ OpenAI, `https://api.openai.com/v1`) and drop any `provider/` prefix from `CLOUD
   a chat narrowed to some documents searched the whole workspace whenever the planner
   judged a question multi-hop (ADR-6 recorded it). Its citations also lacked the tier, so
   a global contribution was cited as a workspace document. Workspace isolation itself held.
+- **A global contribution is never mistaken for a document without a workspace.** Both have
+  no `workspace_id`, so an upload naming no workspace, an admin's workspace-less connector,
+  or the re-ingest worker could update a contribution in place, and every workspace reads
+  the tier. The worker also picked contributions as stale and tried to re-read a source
+  file they do not have. Found by the separate review of #528.
+- **A workspace's ontology counts only its live documents.** `workspace_ontology` counted
+  the entities of retired documents, and of chunks a re-ingest had retired. Found by the
+  separate review of #527.
 
 ### Changed
 
@@ -70,20 +91,6 @@ OpenAI, `https://api.openai.com/v1`) and drop any `provider/` prefix from `CLOUD
   also counted deactivated admins, so the last active one could be deactivated while a
   deactivated one existed; it now counts active admins.
 
-### Fixed
-
-- **A global contribution is never mistaken for a document without a workspace.** Both have
-  no `workspace_id`, so an upload naming no workspace, an admin's workspace-less connector,
-  or the re-ingest worker could update a contribution in place, and every workspace reads
-  the tier. The worker also picked contributions as stale and tried to re-read a source
-  file they do not have. Found by the separate review of #528.
-
-### Fixed
-
-- **A workspace's ontology counts only its live documents.** `workspace_ontology` counted
-  the entities of retired documents, and of chunks a re-ingest had retired. Found by the
-  separate review of #527.
-
 ## [3.5.0] — 2026-10-31
 
 The release that closes the quality plan's maturity target (Initiative 12). All six

diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -368,7 +368,7 @@ services:
     environment:
       # ── Application ──────────────────────────────────────
       APP_ENV:         ${APP_ENV:-production}
-      APP_VERSION:     ${APP_VERSION:-3.5.0}
+      APP_VERSION:     ${APP_VERSION:-3.6.0}
       SECRET_KEY:      ${SECRET_KEY:?SECRET_KEY must be set}
       JWT_SECRET_KEY:  ${JWT_SECRET_KEY:?JWT_SECRET_KEY must be set}
       ADMIN_PASSWORD:  ${ADMIN_PASSWORD:?ADMIN_PASSWORD must be set}

diff --git a/docs/CONFIGURATION.md b/docs/CONFIGURATION.md
@@ -441,7 +441,7 @@ to empty, in which case the router falls back to the active model.
 
 | Variable | Default | Effect |
 |---|---|---|
-| `APP_VERSION` | `3.5.0` | Reported as `system.app_version` by `GET /api/settings/stats` (admin). See the note below |
+| `APP_VERSION` | `3.6.0` | Reported as `system.app_version` by `GET /api/settings/stats` (admin). See the note below |
 | `STATE_FILE` | `app_state.json` (host-run); `/app/data/app_state.json` (image) | Where the settings page persists the active model and RAG parameters. In compose it lives on the `app_data` volume |
 | `MAX_CONTENT_LENGTH` | `16777216` | Upload ceiling in bytes (16 MB), enforced while the upload streams to disk |
 | `UVICORN_WORKERS` | `1` | Worker processes. **Only `1` is supported** — the app refuses to boot otherwise |
@@ -494,5 +494,5 @@ to empty, in which case the router falls back to the active model.
 > **That is not hypothetical — it is what happened.** Until 2026-08-31 the three read
 > `1.0.0`, `0.5.0` and `1.0.0` against a `v3.0.0-beta.1` tag: a containerised deployment
 > reported **0.5.0**, a host-run one **1.0.0**, and neither was the version being run.
-> All three now read `3.5.0`, and `tests/unit/test_app_version_is_consistent.py` fails if
+> All three now read `3.6.0`, and `tests/unit/test_app_version_is_consistent.py` fails if
 > they diverge again — the drift was silent precisely because no check compared them.
diff --git a/docs/DEPLOYMENT.md b/docs/DEPLOYMENT.md
@@ -228,7 +228,7 @@ attestations: an SPDX SBOM made by syft, and SLSA build provenance. All three na
 image's digest, not a tag. Verify before you deploy a pulled image (QP-8):
 
 ```bash
-IMAGE=ghcr.io/jwvanderstam/localchat:3.5.0
+IMAGE=ghcr.io/jwvanderstam/localchat:3.6.0
 
 # The signature: made by this repository's publish workflow, on main or a release tag
 cosign verify "$IMAGE" \

diff --git a/docs/ROADMAP.md b/docs/ROADMAP.md
@@ -1915,7 +1915,7 @@ start **before** QP-4's first PR.
 > not on the strict mypy list. They were typed and added on 2026-10-31, with a test that
 > keeps every service and repository on it.
 
-#### QP-10 — The review's open findings ⬜ (after v3.4.0)
+#### QP-10 — The review's open findings ✅ (done 2026-11-11, released as v3.6.0)
 
 From `SECURITY.md`'s QP-9 register, in this order:
 
@@ -2055,7 +2055,7 @@ the generation path is a deterministic pipeline unless an answer-level eval says
 | 24 | GKB-3 (chat reads the global tier) ✅ #467 + QP-3 (ratchets, ADR-7, PC-4) ✅ #468 + QP-6 (honest coverage, 85.68%) ✅ #469 + QP-7 e2e, 8 paths ✅ | ~1 week (weeks 3-4) |
 | 25-27 | QP-4 (one aggregate per PR; CONN-1 decided before connectors) ✅ alongside QP-7 + QP-8 | ~12 days (weeks 4-9) |
 | 28 | QP-5 (scope every path, compose `DocumentProcessor`; `Database` stays) ✅ + QP-9 (agent review) ✅ -> **v3.4.0** (the review's fixes); the re-audit moves to **v3.5.0**, once QP-7's required checks and QP-8's signed images hold | ~1 week (weeks 10-12) |
-| 29 | QP-8's signed images ✅ + strict typing on every service ✅ -> **v3.5.0** ✅ 2026-10-31, re-audit; then QP-10 (R-8 ✅ #521) and QP-11 ✅ #523 | ~1 week |
+| 29 | QP-8's signed images ✅ + strict typing on every service ✅ -> **v3.5.0** ✅ 2026-10-31, re-audit; then QP-10 ✅ (#521, #524-#529) and QP-11 ✅ #523 -> **v3.6.0** | ~1 week |
 | — | Initiative 13 (RF-1..RF-5, retrieval flexibility) — future work, unscheduled by decision (2026-10-23; RF-5 added 2026-10-30) | — |
 | **Total** | | **~22 weeks** (PG-0..PG-8 complete; it no longer gates Sprints 8-14. Sprints 15–18 are the audit's P2 tier, ordered cheapest-first rather than by the plan's driver ranking; reorder if GKB-1 wants P2-3's numbers first. **Execution order is not sprint-number order:** 15 to 21 run first, then 8 to 14. Sprints 19 to 21 are Initiative 11, placed directly after the P2 tier on 2026-09-26) |
 

diff --git a/src/config.py b/src/config.py
@@ -547,7 +547,7 @@ def _production_errors(errors: list[str]) -> None:
 # Bump on release, together with docker-compose.yml's default and the row in
 # docs/CONFIGURATION.md — tests/unit/test_app_version_is_consistent.py holds the
 # three together, because they had already drifted to 1.0.0, 0.5.0 and 1.0.0.
-APP_VERSION: str = os.environ.get('APP_VERSION', '3.5.0')
+APP_VERSION: str = os.environ.get('APP_VERSION', '3.6.0')
 
 # Supported file types
 SUPPORTED_IMAGE_EXTENSIONS: list[str] = ['.png', '.jpg', '.jpeg', '.gif', '.webp']