Release 0.10.1 — runs on Node 16

[qwerfunch]

Release 0.10.1 — runs on Node 16

2026-09-11 · develop → main

One user-facing fix shipped as a patch: a global install on Node 16 crashed inside Node's own module loader before printing anything, and the supported floor stood at Node 20 only because a bundled dependency declared it.

Heads-up for the merge: use Create a merge commit. A squash puts the release commit outside develop's ancestry and the next release branch reports every file touched since as conflicting. After the tag, back-merge main into develop so develop stays a clean superset.

What ships

▸ The published entry point loads on every release. It had no file extension, which the module loader refuses in a package that declares modules, so the crash happened before any project code ran and nothing could explain it.

▸ The floor drops from Node 20 to Node 16, by removing what reached above it rather than by relaxing a number. Measured against running releases: the engine already worked on Node 18, and exactly four runtime surfaces separated it from Node 16 — three from one dependency used only to launch external commands, one a promise-flavoured import of our own. A single bundled file means that dependency's requirement was the whole tool's requirement.

▸ One launcher of our own replaces it, reproducing the four behaviours whose loss would change a check's verdict silently: Windows resolution of commands that are really batch files, one trailing newline trimmed, a capture limit that does not truncate a verbose tool, and an absent exit status when a command never started.

▸ A guard so the floor cannot rise again unnoticed. Every runtime module the bundle imports is resolved against the release under test, in the build job and again on the floor release itself.

Verified at this version

Through a real install from the packed archive, not a direct file invocation:

node:14  →  cladding requires Node 16 or newer. This is Node 14.21.3.   exit=1
node:16  →  0.10.1                                                      exit=0
node:18  →  0.10.1                                                      exit=0
node:20  →  0.10.1                                                      exit=0
node:22  →  0.10.1                                                      exit=0
node:24  →  0.10.1                                                      exit=0

On Node 16 the originally reported command completes, and so does real work — spec validation over 306 entries, the status matrix, and the gate. Full suite 3855 of 3855, conformance 33 of 33 at the top assurance level, strict pre-push gate green, rebuild on the commit produces no diff, and the tree stays clean after the gate.

Known limits, stated plainly

▸ On Node 16 a check that delegates to this project's own linter fails, because that linter needs Node 18. It is reported as a tool finding rather than a crash, and it is the toolchain's requirement rather than cladding's floor.

▸ Windows has no runner in the previous workflow, so its cell here is the first real execution on that platform. The mechanism is identical across platforms and the platform-specific hazards carry source-level guards, but nobody has run project activation end to end on Windows.

▸ Node 14 and below stay out of reach deliberately: 14 additionally needs our own recursive copy and 12 two more of our own calls, for runtimes three years past end of life. Below the floor, one sentence naming the required version is the honest answer.