diff --git a/.release-please-manifest.json b/.release-please-manifest.json
index b05f59a..5e39b94 100644
--- a/.release-please-manifest.json
+++ b/.release-please-manifest.json
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 {
-  ".": "0.17.1"
+  ".": "0.18.0"
 }
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b6a4084..bd9e50e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,26 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## [0.18.0](https://github.com/cachekit-io/cachekit-py/compare/v0.17.1...v0.18.0) (2026-08-08)
+
+
+### ⚠ BREAKING CHANGES
+
+* L1CacheConfig.namespace_index is removed. The flag was read by nothing and toggled no behavior, but it shipped in v0.17.1 and docs/configuration.md documented a copy-pasteable L1CacheConfig(..., namespace_index=True) example — L1CacheConfig is a frozen dataclass, so constructors still passing it now raise TypeError instead of silently lying. L1Cache.invalidate_by_key(), .invalidate_by_namespace() and .invalidate_all() are removed with it; per-key L1Cache.invalidate() is unaffected. Same removal shape as L1CacheConfig.invalidation_enabled in v0.16.0 (LAB-520).
+
+### Features
+
+* **encryption:** keyring rotation — previous_master_keys + fingerprint selection (LAB-684) ([#261](https://github.com/cachekit-io/cachekit-py/issues/261)) ([e1b05ce](https://github.com/cachekit-io/cachekit-py/commit/e1b05ce1b5f30c63d86ab0cab6f4ddbc9af8cef6))
+
+
+### Bug Fixes
+
+* **l1:** delete dead backed-mode SWR machinery; docs stop claiming backed SWR (LAB-388) ([#256](https://github.com/cachekit-io/cachekit-py/issues/256)) ([878ad08](https://github.com/cachekit-io/cachekit-py/commit/878ad0860a340477257d2ac4f19f3f107f0789b4))
+
+
+### Code Refactoring
+
+* delete dead L1 namespace-index/bulk-invalidation machinery (LAB-1433) ([#258](https://github.com/cachekit-io/cachekit-py/issues/258)) ([2607faf](https://github.com/cachekit-io/cachekit-py/commit/2607fafd3d0dcd974e94788b7e5d46ee676701d4))
+
 ## [0.17.1](https://github.com/cachekit-io/cachekit-py/compare/v0.17.0...v0.17.1) (2026-07-29)
 
 
diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index bc8e947..0f7c05e 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -271,7 +271,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "cachekit-rs"
-version = "0.17.1"
+version = "0.18.0"
 dependencies = [
  "cachekit-core",
  "criterion",
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 3860e79..c6947d9 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "maturin"
 
 [project]
 name = "cachekit"
-version = "0.17.1"
+version = "0.18.0"
 description = "Backend-agnostic caching for Python — intent-based decorators with circuit breaker, distributed locking, Prometheus metrics, and optional zero-knowledge AES-256-GCM encryption, on a Rust-powered core. Zero-config L1 in-memory; scales to Redis, Memcached, File, or CachekitIO."
 readme = "README.md"
 license = {text = "MIT"}
diff --git a/rust/Cargo.toml b/rust/Cargo.toml
index aeeaf39..cbdec4a 100644
--- a/rust/Cargo.toml
+++ b/rust/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "cachekit-rs"
-version = "0.17.1"
+version = "0.18.0"
 edition = "2021"
 authors = ["cachekit Contributors"]
 description = "High-performance storage engine for caching with compression and encryption"
diff --git a/src/cachekit/__init__.py b/src/cachekit/__init__.py
index cce4835..e0f9ad3 100644
--- a/src/cachekit/__init__.py
+++ b/src/cachekit/__init__.py
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ def custom_function():
     ```
 """
 
-__version__ = "0.17.1"
+__version__ = "0.18.0"
 
 from collections.abc import Callable
 from typing import Any, TypeVar
diff --git a/uv.lock b/uv.lock
index 4f9df25..8a4e6a1 100644
--- a/uv.lock
+++ b/uv.lock
@@ -231,7 +231,7 @@ filecache = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "cachekit"
-version = "0.17.1"
+version = "0.18.0"
 source = { editable = "." }
 dependencies = [
     { name = "blake3" },
@@ -594,7 +594,7 @@ name = "exceptiongroup"
 version = "1.3.0"
 source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }
 dependencies = [
-    { name = "typing-extensions", marker = "python_full_version < '3.11'" },
+    { name = "typing-extensions" },
 ]
 sdist = { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/0b/9f/a65090624ecf468cdca03533906e7c69ed7588582240cfe7cc9e770b50eb/exceptiongroup-1.3.0.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:b241f5885f560bc56a59ee63ca4c6a8bfa46ae4ad651af316d4e81817bb9fd88", size = 29749, upload-time = "2025-05-10T17:42:51.123Z" }
 wheels = [