feat(ferrflow): add entries for the latest alias, PR lookup, preview and wording fixes

entries/2026-10-03-ferrflow-latest-tag-hotfix.md

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+---
+title: 'FerrFlow: a hotfix no longer moves the latest alias backward'
+summary: 'With latestTag set, releasing 1.2.4 after 2.0.0 pointed latest at 1.2.4. latest now stays on the highest version; the hotfix release still goes through, and --force moves the alias back if you want it to.'
+date: 2026-10-03T12:15:00Z
+product: ferrflow
+type: fix
+prLink: https://github.com/FerrLabs/FerrFlow/pull/1262
+docsLink: https://ferrflow.com/docs/configuration/config-file/
+---
+
+The `latestTag` alias followed whichever stable release ran last, so cutting a hotfix on a maintenance line pointed `latest` at an older version than the one most people should install. It now behaves like the floating `v1` and `v1.5` tags and never moves to a lower version on its own.
+
+Unlike those tags, a backward `latest` does not stop the release: shipping a hotfix on an older line is a normal thing to do, so the release completes, `latest` stays put, and the output says `Kept latest on 2.0.0: 1.2.4 is older`. If you relied on `latest` meaning "most recently released", pass `--force` to that release and the alias moves back as before, with a warning.

entries/2026-10-03-ferrflow-pr-lookup-branch-encoding.md

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+title: 'FerrFlow: release PRs are found again on branches with special characters'
+summary: 'A target branch containing &, # or + broke the lookup for the existing release PR on GitHub and GitLab, so FerrFlow opened a second one. A failed branch update on GitHub also reported the wrong error.'
+date: 2026-10-03T12:00:00Z
+product: ferrflow
+type: fix
+prLink: https://github.com/FerrLabs/FerrFlow/pull/1261
+---
+
+With `releaseCommitMode: "pr"`, FerrFlow looks for an open release PR before proposing a new one. The branch name went into that query unencoded, so a branch such as `release/a+b` sent a different name to the API, the existing PR was not found, and a duplicate was opened. Branch names are now percent-encoded on both GitHub and GitLab.
+
+On GitHub, moving the release branch fell back to creating it after any failure, so an expired token showed up as a confusing "create ref" error. FerrFlow now only creates the branch when GitHub says it does not exist, and otherwise reports the real failure under E3015.

entries/2026-10-03-ferrflow-preview-backtick.md

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+title: 'FerrFlow: a backtick in a version no longer breaks the PR preview table'
+summary: 'The release preview comment wrapped versions in a code span that a backtick could close early, scrambling the table. Version cells now use a fence long enough for whatever they contain.'
+date: 2026-10-03T12:05:00Z
+product: ferrflow
+type: fix
+prLink: https://github.com/FerrLabs/FerrFlow/pull/1260
+---
+
+`ferrflow check --comment` posts a table of current and next versions on the pull request. Each version sat in a single-backtick code span, and the backslash used to escape a backtick inside it is ignored by Markdown, so a version containing a backtick closed the span and broke the row.
+
+Version cells are now fenced with one more backtick than the longest run in the value, as CommonMark specifies, so the table renders the version exactly as written.

entries/2026-10-03-ferrflow-why-doctor-wording.md

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+title: 'FerrFlow: clearer wording in why and doctor'
+summary: 'ferrflow why no longer prints "forced bump forced", and ferrflow doctor shows a declared strategy with its config spelling, such as calver-short instead of calvershort.'
+date: 2026-10-03T12:10:00Z
+product: ferrflow
+type: fix
+prLink: https://github.com/FerrLabs/FerrFlow/pull/1259
+---
+
+Two diagnostics printed text that did not match what you wrote. `ferrflow why` described a version pinned with `--force-version` as `Decision: forced bump forced`; it now reads `forced bump set with --force-version`. `ferrflow doctor` showed a declared versioning strategy with its hyphens dropped, so `calver-short` appeared as `calvershort`, a value the config would reject. It now prints the name exactly as you would write it in `ferrflow.json`.