diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7154d5a2..16fb5786 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,17 @@
 
 All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. See [standard-version](https://github.com/conventional-changelog/standard-version) for commit guidelines.
 
+### [10.4.9](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.4.6...v10.4.9) (2026-09-02)
+
+- Merge branch 'fix/pending-embed-low-water' into rel/10.4.9-candidate (2648f56d)
+- fix(open): pending-embed recovery keeps the crash-recovery contract — foreground, bounded by the mark (8a2ebacf)
+- Merge branches 'fix/connected-find-order', 'fix/pending-embed-low-water' and 'fix/related-verb-array' into rel/10.4.9-candidate (d5147ed6)
+- fix(graph): the verb fast paths honour every requested type, source, and target (6a89adc4)
+- perf(open): pending-embed recovery is bounded by a low-water mark and runs behind the doors (88e79729)
+- fix(find): connected finds are graph-first — neighbours, then the filter over those ids, then the page (077cbc0b)
+- fix(storage): counts persistence is single-flight, coalesced, and never races its own temp file (5e3b343a)
+
+
 ### [10.4.6](https://source.soulcraft.com/soulcraftlabs/open-brainy/compare/v10.4.5...v10.4.6) (2026-08-31)
 
 - fix(transact): metadata-index ops take their JSON-safe view at the crossing, not at construction (73500e7d)
diff --git a/package-lock.json b/package-lock.json
index 9e573da3..fc530baa 100644
--- a/package-lock.json
+++ b/package-lock.json
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 {
   "name": "@soulcraftlabs/brainy",
-  "version": "10.4.6",
+  "version": "10.4.9",
   "lockfileVersion": 3,
   "requires": true,
   "packages": {
     "": {
       "name": "@soulcraftlabs/brainy",
-      "version": "10.4.6",
+      "version": "10.4.9",
       "license": "MIT",
       "dependencies": {
         "@msgpack/msgpack": "^3.1.2",
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 51322998..f07bb94c 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@soulcraftlabs/brainy",
-  "version": "10.4.6",
+  "version": "10.4.9",
   "brainyContract": 1,
   "description": "Universal Knowledge Protocol™ - World's first Triple Intelligence database unifying vector, graph, and document search in one API. Stage 3 CANONICAL: 42 nouns × 127 verbs covering 96-97% of all human knowledge.",
   "main": "dist/index.js",