🚀 chore: Prepare v0.8.8-rc1

[danny-avila]

Summary

I rebased the LibreChat v0.8.8-rc1 release branch onto the synchronized dev/main head (d4c64d485) and refreshed every release surface for the changes merged since the previous pass.

• Preserved the app v0.8.8-rc1, Helm chart 2.0.8 with appVersion: v0.8.8-rc1, and config schema 1.3.14 targets.
• Bumped the publishable packages again to @librechat/api@1.7.46, @librechat/client@0.4.75, librechat-data-provider@0.8.521, and @librechat/data-schemas@0.0.68.
• Synchronized the npm and Bun workspace lockfile versions without dependency churn.
• Updated the near-top README summary for message editing, PowerPoint .potx templates, portable shell uploads, Gemini 3.7 Flash, and parsed MCP response media types.
• Audited the seventeen PRs added across the latest refreshes, including message layouts and editing, Agent activity-phase persistence and E2E stability, Agent save consistency, MCP instruction and stale-stream recovery, MCP SDK 1.30 response handling, PowerPoint templates, shell MIME aliases and clear upload errors, Gemini 3.7 Flash, dark-mode and steer-bubble styling, API build cleanup, and Locize CI hardening.
• Refreshed the companion durable documentation, config notes, categorized changelog, contributor list, and standalone GitHub release artifact.

Companion documentation PR: LibreChat-AI/docs#699

Change Type

• This change requires a documentation update
• Documentation update

Testing

• npm run build:packages
• npm run test:ci --workspace=@librechat/api -- --runInBand --coverage=false src/mcp/__tests__/MCPManager.test.ts (111 tests passed)
• npm run test:ci --workspace=@librechat/api -- --runInBand --coverage=false src/mcp/__tests__/MCPConnection.test.ts src/mcp/__tests__/MCPConnectionSseConflict.test.ts (77 tests passed)
• npm run test:ci --workspace=@librechat/api -- --runInBand --coverage=false src/files/code/classify.spec.ts src/files/code/extract.spec.ts src/files/documents/html.spec.ts (236 tests passed)
• npm run test:ci --workspace=librechat-data-provider -- --runInBand --coverage=false --silent src/file-config.spec.ts (182 tests passed)
• npm run test:ci --workspace=@librechat/frontend -- --runInBand --coverage=false src/utils/__tests__/artifacts.test.ts src/utils/__tests__/getViableUploadOptions.spec.ts (178 tests passed)
• npm run test:ci --workspace=@librechat/api -- --runInBand --coverage=false src/endpoints/google/llm.spec.ts src/utils/headers.spec.ts src/mcp/__tests__/MCPConnectionSSRF.test.ts src/middleware/error.spec.ts src/utils/tokens.spec.ts (208 tests passed)
• npm run test:ci --workspace=@librechat/data-schemas -- --runInBand --coverage=false --silent src/methods/tx.spec.ts (231 tests passed)
• npm run test:ci --workspace=@librechat/backend -- --runInBand --coverage=false server/routes/files/multer.spec.js utils/tokens.spec.js (233 tests passed)
• Verified the final build and late-change suites against an exact npm ci install with @librechat/agents@3.4.7 and @modelcontextprotocol/sdk@1.30.0
• Verified app, chart, config, package-manifest, npm lockfile, and Bun lockfile version consistency
• Audited v0.8.7..origin/dev: 356 commits, all 355 PRs, and the non-PR commit are present in both release artifacts
• git diff --check

Checklist

• My code adheres to this project's style guidelines
• I have performed a self-review of my own code
• I have made pertinent documentation changes
• My changes do not introduce new warnings
• Local unit tests pass with my changes
• A pull request for updating the documentation has been submitted

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Prepares the monorepo for the v0.8.8-rc1 release by bumping application/package/chart versions, updating the config schema version, and refreshing example configuration/env files to reflect newly exposed settings.

Changes:

• Bump app version to v0.8.8-rc1 and patch-bump publishable packages (plus lockfiles).
• Bump config schema version to 1.3.14 and refresh librechat.example.yaml accordingly.
• Bump Helm chart to 2.0.8 with appVersion: v0.8.8-rc1 and update version header comments in build/test artifacts.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 15 out of 17 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
packages/data-schemas/package.json	Patch bump @librechat/data-schemas version.
packages/data-provider/src/config.ts	Update config schema version constant; adjust endpoint checkpointer comment.
packages/data-provider/package.json	Patch bump librechat-data-provider version.
packages/client/package.json	Patch bump @librechat/client version.
packages/api/package.json	Patch bump @librechat/api version.
package.json	Bump root app version to v0.8.8-rc1.
package-lock.json	Sync lockfile versions with app/package bumps.
librechat.example.yaml	Update config schema version; add/update example settings (langfuse/tool approval/checkpointer/summarization/etc.).
helm/librechat/Chart.yaml	Bump chart version and appVersion for the release candidate.
e2e/jestSetup.js	Update version header comment.
Dockerfile.multi	Update version header comment.
Dockerfile	Update version header comment.
client/package.json	Bump frontend package version to v0.8.8-rc1.
client/jest.config.cjs	Update version header comment.
bun.lock	Sync Bun lockfile versions with app/package bumps.
api/package.json	Bump backend package version to v0.8.8-rc1.
.env.example	Add newly exposed env knobs; refresh env documentation for release.

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[afuetterer]

Hi! Quick question: When is the release of rc1 planned? I’m very interested in the next version and saw this PR. Thanks!

[danny-avila]

Sorry for the wait should be todayy

[afuetterer]

Oh my god, awesome!