diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 12116089..833086c4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ User-visible changes to Imp are recorded here.
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+## 0.16.1 — 2026-10-17
+
 ### Fixed
 
 - ReActV2 under `finish: :submit` or `finish: :tools` replays a stored turn
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 70571e93..c030afa1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ large-scale benchmarking. Bug reports and pull requests are welcome.
 - [Getting started](docs/getting-started/index.md) builds one program step by
   step, from the first call to a supervised server, with real scores.
 - [Coming from DSPy](docs/coming-from-dspy.md) maps DSPy's names to Imp's.
-- [Tutorials](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/tree/v0.16.0/livebooks) are Livebook notebooks
+- [Tutorials](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/tree/v0.16.1/livebooks) are Livebook notebooks
   you can run offline or with a key.
 - The [cheatsheet](docs/cheatsheet.cheatmd) has the common calls on one page.
 
diff --git a/RELEASE_NOTES.md b/RELEASE_NOTES.md
index e0a2d4f1..f9d336e2 100644
--- a/RELEASE_NOTES.md
+++ b/RELEASE_NOTES.md
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
-# Imp v0.16.0
+# Imp v0.16.1
 
 Imp is a framework for typed, optimizable language-model programs on the BEAM.
-This release adds `request_retry:` to `Imp.Run.start/3`, which sends a model
-request the provider failed in a way that may pass again in the same run, after
-a wait. It also changes two things a caller may rely on: an LM client other
-than ReqLLM reports its charge as metadata `:cost`, because `Imp.Core` no longer
-reads it from the usage map; and a ReActV2 forced `submit` with invalid
-arguments goes to the extractor. A new option and changed behaviour make this
-a minor release under Imp's versioning rule.
+This release fixes how ReActV2 replays a history turn that a host stored with
+the task's inputs and its answer, and no step of the loop's own. Under
+`finish: :submit` and `finish: :tools`, since 0.14.0, such a turn replayed only
+its inputs: the model read the event and not the answer stored with it. It now
+replays as the model's message holding that answer, as it always has under
+`finish: :auto`. It adds no options and changes no public API, so under Imp's
+versioning rule this is a patch release.
 
 ## Install
 
@@ -29,44 +29,29 @@ in its release definition; see [releases that use MCP or
 ACP](docs/production.md#releases-that-use-mcp-or-acp).
 Ordinary Imp startup starts no protocol endpoint.
 
-## Changes and upgrading from 0.15
+## Changes and upgrading from 0.16.0
 
-Change the Imp dependency to `{:imp, "~> 0.16.0"}`, run `mix deps.update imp`,
-and commit `mix.lock`. No data migration is needed. Check the second item if
-you use an LM client of your own, or build response envelopes by hand.
+Under `{:imp, "~> 0.16.0"}`, run `mix deps.update imp` and commit `mix.lock`.
+No code or data migration is needed.
 
-- **Added: `request_retry:` on `Imp.Run.start/3`.** `request_retry: [waits:
-  [ms, ...], reserve: ms]` sends a model request that failed with an error
-  `Imp.Errors.retryable?/1` accepts (408, 425, 429, 5xx, a failed connection)
-  again inside `Imp.LM.request/2`, after each wait in turn. Under a deadline
-  the last wait repeats while it leaves `reserve` (60 s by default) of the
-  deadline; without one, the list is the bound. A provider's `retry-after`
-  longer than the wait is waited instead. Each attempt is its own
-  `:model_request` and `:model_response`, and a failed response followed by
-  another attempt carries `retry_in_ms`. Only the outermost request in a
-  process retries, so an LM that wraps an LM does not multiply attempts.
-  Streamed requests are not sent again. `waits` must not be empty. Off unless
-  given. A timed-out attempt may have been finished and billed by the
-  provider without a response to record, so a retry can be billed twice;
-  under a deadline each attempt is capped to the time left.
-- **Changed: where a call's charge is read.** OpenRouter bring-your-own-key
-  billing moved into `Imp.Clients.ReqLLM`, which records the charge it
-  resolves as `:charge` in its `req_llm` response metadata. `Imp.Core` reads
-  `LMResponse.cost` from that `:charge` (final when present, `nil` included),
-  and otherwise from metadata `:cost`; it no longer reads usage `"cost"` or
-  `"is_byok"`. An LM client other than ReqLLM, or a hand-built response
-  envelope, must report its charge as `:cost` in its metadata (or
-  `req_llm.charge`), or its cost is `nil`.
-- **Fixed: a forced `submit` with invalid arguments is extracted.** A ReActV2
-  forced `submit` whose arguments fail validation now goes to the typed
-  extractor and ends `:extracted`, where it ended `:incomplete` with no
-  outputs. If that extraction request fails with an LM error, the call
-  returns `{:error, %Imp.Predict.ReActV2.StepError{}}`, where it returned
-  `{:ok, prediction}` ending `:incomplete`. A forced `submit` the tool policy
-  refuses still ends `:incomplete`.
+- **Fixed: a stored answer turn replays its answer under every ending.**
+  ReActV2 reads a stored turn that carries the inputs and the one output of
+  the task, and neither `next_thought` nor `tool_calls`, as a step that
+  answered in text. Since 0.14.0 it did so only when the program ended in
+  plain text (`finish: :auto`); under `finish: :submit` and `:tools`, with
+  either `history_replay`, the request held the turn's inputs as a user
+  message and no assistant message after them. A host that writes such a
+  turn, for example a recap standing in for the earlier conversation, had
+  its content left out of every request. The turn now replays as one
+  assistant message holding the answer, with no "not sent" line after it,
+  since it carries the task's output. Turns the loop writes itself are
+  unchanged, and the history the caller holds is unchanged. Under
+  `finish: :auto`, a one-output signature whose output is constrained or not
+  typed string gets the same replay when the stored value is a string.
 
-Rollback means restoring `0.15.0` in the lock and removing `request_retry:`.
-See the [changelog](CHANGELOG.md) for every change.
+Rollback means restoring `0.16.0` in the lock; such turns then replay their
+inputs alone again under `finish: :submit` and `:tools`. See the
+[changelog](CHANGELOG.md) for every change.
 
 ## Known limits
 
diff --git a/docs/coming-from-dspy.md b/docs/coming-from-dspy.md
index ad4307e9..1de95752 100644
--- a/docs/coming-from-dspy.md
+++ b/docs/coming-from-dspy.md
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ error row too. Each model request has a receive timeout, and
 has no time limit of its own (an MCP tool call does, 30 seconds by default),
 so to bound an agent, start it with `Imp.start_run/3` and cancel it when you
 choose. The
-[deployment example](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/blob/v0.16.0/examples/deployment/README.md)
+[deployment example](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/blob/v0.16.1/examples/deployment/README.md)
 is a complete OTP application.
 
 **Optimizers see what you name.** DSPy finds predictors by walking a module's
diff --git a/docs/diving-deeper/modules-and-composition.md b/docs/diving-deeper/modules-and-composition.md
index 4521f171..d1b8c95b 100644
--- a/docs/diving-deeper/modules-and-composition.md
+++ b/docs/diving-deeper/modules-and-composition.md
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ A custom module is your code, so it is not saved as a whole. What an optimizer
 chose for it is data: `Imp.ProgramParameters.values/1` reads it,
 `Imp.ProgramParameters.apply_values/2` puts it on a freshly built program, and
 `Imp.Optimizer.Artifact` writes it to a checksummed file. The
-[deployment example](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/blob/v0.16.0/examples/deployment/README.md)
+[deployment example](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/blob/v0.16.1/examples/deployment/README.md)
 does this in a supervised application.
 
 ### Built-in variants
diff --git a/docs/diving-deeper/saving-and-artifacts.md b/docs/diving-deeper/saving-and-artifacts.md
index ebd689d3..1d9c2968 100644
--- a/docs/diving-deeper/saving-and-artifacts.md
+++ b/docs/diving-deeper/saving-and-artifacts.md
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ Save the whole program when it is made of Imp's modules: `Imp.predict/2`,
 when the program is your own struct implementing `Imp.Module`, or when you
 want the program's code to live in your release and only its tuned text to
 cross the persistence boundary. The
-[deployment example](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/tree/v0.16.0/examples/deployment)
+[deployment example](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/tree/v0.16.1/examples/deployment)
 does the second.
 
 ### 2. JSON with a checksum
diff --git a/docs/getting-started/running-in-your-application.md b/docs/getting-started/running-in-your-application.md
index e2807cdc..ad28fb08 100644
--- a/docs/getting-started/running-in-your-application.md
+++ b/docs/getting-started/running-in-your-application.md
@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ Changing models is then a configuration change, and rotating a key is a
 restart.
 
 The
-[deployment example](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/blob/v0.16.0/examples/deployment/README.md)
+[deployment example](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/blob/v0.16.1/examples/deployment/README.md)
 is the complete version of this page: a two-stage program like `TicketTriage`,
 learned parameters loaded and reloaded as an `Imp.Optimizer.Artifact`, crashed
 and timed-out calls contained, and the whole thing restarted in a fresh OS
diff --git a/docs/getting-started/where-to-go-next.md b/docs/getting-started/where-to-go-next.md
index 62fa74aa..c00b466f 100644
--- a/docs/getting-started/where-to-go-next.md
+++ b/docs/getting-started/where-to-go-next.md
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ The module documentation is the reference for every function.
 [Running Imp in production](../production.md) covers what the last page began:
 supervision, provider failures, runs you can observe and cancel, and
 telemetry. The
-[deployment example](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/blob/v0.16.0/examples/deployment/README.md)
+[deployment example](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/blob/v0.16.1/examples/deployment/README.md)
 is a complete application to copy from.
 
 ## Try it in a notebook
diff --git a/docs/production.md b/docs/production.md
index 441d9f41..8b5c1356 100644
--- a/docs/production.md
+++ b/docs/production.md
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ where its credentials come from, how long a call may take and what it may
 cost. This page covers those decisions in the order you meet them: starting
 Imp, credentials, concurrency, timeouts, cost and caching, persistence and
 telemetry. The
-[deployment example](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/tree/v0.16.0/examples/deployment)
+[deployment example](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/tree/v0.16.1/examples/deployment)
 is a complete OTP application that puts them together.
 
 ## Imp in your supervision tree
@@ -263,7 +263,7 @@ standard error.
 
 ## The reference application
 
-[`examples/deployment`](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/tree/v0.16.0/examples/deployment)
+[`examples/deployment`](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/tree/v0.16.1/examples/deployment)
 is a small OTP application that loads a checksummed artifact at startup, reads
 its key from the environment, serves calls from bounded supervised tasks,
 answers overload and timeouts with errors instead of blocking, and reloads
diff --git a/livebooks/05_operating_imp.livemd b/livebooks/05_operating_imp.livemd
index 58f189a5..6fd60705 100644
--- a/livebooks/05_operating_imp.livemd
+++ b/livebooks/05_operating_imp.livemd
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ Enum.each(busy, &Task.await/1)
 refused
 ```
 
-The [deployment example](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/tree/v0.16.0/examples/deployment)
+The [deployment example](https://github.com/deepfates/imp/tree/v0.16.1/examples/deployment)
 wraps the same pattern in a `ProgramServer` that also reloads parameters while
 serving.
 
diff --git a/mix.exs b/mix.exs
index a0f291cc..19aa7c82 100644
--- a/mix.exs
+++ b/mix.exs
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 defmodule Imp.MixProject do
   use Mix.Project
 
-  @version "0.16.0"
+  @version "0.16.1"
 
   def project do
     [
diff --git a/priv/public_api.json b/priv/public_api.json
index 65ccb546..80c3d221 100644
--- a/priv/public_api.json
+++ b/priv/public_api.json
@@ -10359,7 +10359,7 @@
       "types": []
     }
   ],
-  "package_version": "0.16.0",
+  "package_version": "0.16.1",
   "schema_version": 3,
   "scope": "Curated Imp API compiled from package-shipped sources. Exports come from non-hidden documentation entries; callbacks, types, and struct fields are category- and policy-gated."
 }
diff --git a/test/package_contract_test.exs b/test/package_contract_test.exs
index d5833ffe..316db6f2 100644
--- a/test/package_contract_test.exs
+++ b/test/package_contract_test.exs
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ defmodule PackageContractTest do
     version = Mix.Project.config()[:version]
     dependency = hex_dependency(version)
 
-    assert version == "0.16.0"
+    assert version == "0.16.1"
     assert File.read!("RELEASE_NOTES.md") =~ "# Imp v#{version}"
     assert File.read!("CHANGELOG.md") =~ "## #{version}"
     assert File.read!("examples/deployment/mix.exs") =~ dependency