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+# Changelog
+
+All notable changes to ChainForge are documented in this file.
+
+The format follows [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/),
+and this project follows semantic versioning where possible.
+
+## [Unreleased]
+
+### Added
+
+- Testnet deployment and observability runbooks for operators.
+- Admin key policy guidance for testnet deployments.
+- Merkle allowlist tooling for auditable aid recipient eligibility lists.
+- Testnet smoke tooling for validating deployed service health.
+
+### Changed
+
+- Repository documentation now points contributors to service-specific setup
+  guides for backend, frontend, mobile, AI service, and Soroban contracts.
+
+### Security
+
+- Contributor guidance emphasizes keeping secrets, private keys, and seed
+  phrases out of commits and issue attachments.
+
+## [1.0.0] - 2026-06-15
+
+### Added
+
+- Initial monorepo release for the ChainForge humanitarian aid platform.
+- Soroban contract workspace for aid escrow logic under `app/onchain`.
+- NestJS backend service with Prisma-backed persistence under `app/backend`.
+- Next.js frontend dashboard under `app/frontend`.
+- Expo mobile application for field operations under `app/mobile`.
+- FastAPI AI service for verification workflows under `app/ai-service`.
+- Documentation index in `README.md` covering architecture, setup, testing, and
+  component-specific contribution entry points.
+
+### Changed
+
+- Declared root package metadata and workspace-level scripts for build, lint,
+  and test orchestration.
+
+### Fixed
+
+- No fixes have been recorded for this release yet.
+
+### Security
+
+- No security advisories have been published for this release.
+
+Release links can be added once the repository starts publishing Git tags or
+GitHub releases.