Adding doc updates for release notes and other items

README.md

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+<!-- AI agents: Start by reading AGENTS.md -->
 # cuOpt - GPU accelerated Optimization Engine
 
 [![Build Status](https://github.com/NVIDIA/cuopt/actions/workflows/build.yaml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/NVIDIA/cuopt/actions/workflows/build.yaml)
@@ -153,6 +154,10 @@ cuOpt follows the RAPIDS release schedule and is part of the **"others"** catego
 
 For current release timelines and dates, refer to the [RAPIDS Maintainers Docs](https://docs.rapids.ai/maintainers/).
 
+## For AI Coding Agents
+
+See [AGENTS.md](./AGENTS.md) for agent-specific guidelines.
+
 ## Contributing Guide
 
 Review the [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) file for information on how to contribute code and issues to the project.

RELEASE-NOTES.md

@@ -1,6 +1,50 @@
 # Release Notes
 
-
+## Release Notes 26.02
+
+### New Features (26.02)
+
+- Parallel reliability branching inside MIP solver
+- Mixed Integer Gomory, Knapsack, Mixed Integer Round, and Strong Chvatal Gomory cuts are now added at root node
+- Added an option to use batch PDLP when running strong branching at the root. Based on [Batched First-Order Methods for Parallel LP Solving in MIP](https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.21990) ([Nicolas Blin](https://github.com/Kh4ster), [Stefano Gualandi](https://github.com/stegua), [Christopher Maes](https://github.com/chris-maes), [Andrea Lodi](https://github.com/andrealodi), [Bartolomeo Stellato](https://github.com/bstellato))
+- New infeasibility detection option for PDLP's default solver mode Stable3
+- Solutions callbacks added to C API
+- Multiple new diving techniques added for finding integer feasible solutions
+- PSLP presolve option for LP
+- Add batch solve for routing to boost throughput for many similar instances
+
+### Breaking Changes (26.02)
+
+-
+
+### Improvements (26.02)
+
+- Improved primal/dual warm start for PDLP's default solver mode Stable3
+- Quadratic objectives can now be constructed via a matrix in Python API
+- QP barrier now updates and solves augmented system on the GPU
+- Probing implications and better variable ordering to strengthen presolve and branching
+- Replace deprecated cuDF Column/Buffer APIs with pylibcudf and public cuDF interfaces
+- Modernize dependency pinnings; make CUDA runtime linkage static for portability
+- Build/tooling: add `--split-compile`, `--jobserver`, Clang host build, ThreadSanitizer, improved container scripts, and branch/commit metadata in images
+- Use explicit `cudaStream_t` with `cub::DeviceTransform` and non-blocking streams for GPU control
+- Enable barrier LP tests, add regression testing, and add SonarQube static analysis
+
+### Bug Fixes (26.02)
+
+- Fix out-of-bounds in dense-column detection in barrier
+- Correct infeasible-list handling to avoid incorrect infeasibility reports in dual simplex
+- Fix race conditions found via Clang host build + ThreadSanitizer
+- Resolve CUDA–Numba version mismatches with cuDF
+- Fix device code to include required trailing return types
+- Fix crossover dualization issues in LP crossover
+- Repair container build and test failures
+- Miscellaneous additional fixes and stability improvements
+
+### Documentation (26.02)
+
+- Update README and top-level docs for current build and usage
+- Document new repository branching strategies and release-cycle details in README and CONTRIBUTING
+- Add best practices for batch solving
 
 ## Release Notes 25.12