Zova v0.25.0

Zova 0.25.0 introduces file format 9, a native graph layout with opaque topology keys, edge payloads, and atomic fresh-build APIs for high-throughput local publication while preserving the existing public graph model.

New database required

Zova does not migrate format-8 databases in place. Keep the original database and a compatible 0.24 application, export the data, then import it into a newly created format-9 database. Zova 0.24 cannot open format-9 files.

Format-9 graph layout

Authoritative graph rows and adjacency indexes now refer to edge types through a private dictionary instead of repeating edge-type text. Public APIs still accept and return edge-type strings.

Format 9 can store one opaque payload BLOB on each authoritative edge without duplicating payload bytes into adjacency indexes. Payloads are available through additive low-level batch lookup, replacement, and prepared construction APIs.

Opaque topology keys

The C ABI and raw zova-sys add:

• opaque node and edge key mutation and lookup;
• keyed neighbor and degree queries;
• paged topology scans;
• prepared keyed graph builds with ordinal endpoints;
• payload-aware prepared graph construction; and
• atomic fresh-build sessions for predeclared table, FTS, graph, and vector targets.

Opaque keys are database-local row identities. They are not portable public IDs and become invalid when their rows or an unfinished transaction or fresh-build session rolls back.

Publication performance

Fresh graph publication reduces repeated endpoint work through endpoint deduplication, dense slots, bounded prepared loading, deferred index construction, and scoped SQLite cache tuning. The release adds keyed-graph, fresh-build, and ablation benchmarks to keep those tradeoffs measurable.

The established graph CRUD, traversal, ordering, names, node IDs, edge types, incremental APIs, and bound graph-store routing remain compatible. The safe Rust, Python, and Go bindings do not expose the new publication surfaces in this release.

Before upgrading

1. Keep the format-8 source and a working 0.24 application.
2. Export application-owned and specialized data with the format-8 build.
3. Upgrade application packages, headers, native libraries, and extensions together.
4. Create a new format-9 database and import the export.
5. Run zova check --deep, then verify application reads, writes, backup, and restore.

See the full v0.24.0 to v0.25.0 changelog.