[sequoiap]

This is the draft of docs/changelog/0.5.0-changelog.md. The release workflow publishes this file as the GitHub release notes for v0.5.0, and make release-minor won't run without it.

Merge after #98 and #99. The changelog already describes them: the driver error types, closing instruments, and #41, #57, #58, #60, #61, #79 and #88. If either one isn't going into 0.5.0, those lines need to come out.

What's covered:

• Everything merged since v0.4.0: Fix ten small bugs from the v0.4.0 audit #85, Add a hardware-free test suite and CI workflow #86, Switch tooling to uv and ruff; drop requirements.txt and bumpversion #87 (landed through Land #86 and #87 on master #89), and Rework the release workflow: Trusted Publishing and real release notes #90 through Build the docs on Read the Docs with uv #97.
• Every issue closed since then is cited. I checked the list of closed issues against the file.
• Structure:
  • an "Upgrading from 0.4" section listing everything a user may need to act on;
  • Added / Changed / Fixed / Removed, in the same format as 0.4.0;
  • a short "For contributors" section.

Date: the heading says 2026-10-05. Change it to the actual release day before running make release-minor.

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