docs: expand 0.22 release notes

[miyoungc]

Description

Expands the 0.22.0 release notes with more complete coverage of the release-plan documentation updates, including:

• LangChain decoupling and the new default OpenAI-compatible framework path.
• Improved OpenAI-compatible and Azure OpenAI configuration guidance.
• IORails observability docs for OpenTelemetry logs, traces, metrics, Prometheus setup, and Guardrails entry-point usage.
• Anonymous usage reporting documentation, including privacy boundaries and opt-out controls.
• GLiNER PII NIM docs and notebook updates.
• Public custom LLM extension points and the nemoguardrails.testing surface.
• Documentation and behavior fixes for Guardrails Agent Middleware, missing-main-LLM warnings, and the Colang 1.0 Hello World tutorial.

The release-note bullets include cross-references to the relevant updated documentation pages and supporting PR links.

Related Issue(s)

Release prep for 0.22.0 documentation updates. Relevant doc PR context includes #1784, #1807, #1834, #1845, #1854, #1855, #1856, #1857, #1858, #1864, #1881, #1882, #1891, #1892, #1893, #1894, and #1896.

Checklist

• I've read the CONTRIBUTING guidelines.
• I've updated the documentation if applicable.
• I've added tests if applicable. Not applicable, docs-only release-note update.
• @mentions of the person or team responsible for reviewing proposed changes.

Test Plan

• Docs-only change.
• Checked docs/about/release-notes.md with editor diagnostics. Existing release-note heading warnings remain unrelated to this update.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation
  • Updated v0.22.0 release notes with expanded coverage of key features including optional LangChain integration, improved default OpenAI support with Azure, OpenTelemetry observability guidance, usage reporting documentation, and new testing utilities and extension protocols.

[github-actions]

Documentation preview

https://nvidia-nemo.github.io/Guardrails/review/pr-1909

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Summary

This PR expands the 0.22.0 release notes with broader coverage of the release-plan documentation updates and bumps docs/project.json and docs/versions1.json to the new version. The supporting documentation files receive editorial clean-up only (wording, link phrasing, table formatting).

• docs/about/release-notes.md: Rewrites the 0.22.0 section with full bullets for LangChain decoupling, OpenAI/Azure support, IORails observability, anonymous usage reporting, GLiNER PII NIM, public extension points, and doc/behavior fixes; the 0.21.0 section is removed and linked externally.
• Supporting docs (supported-llms.md, configuration-reference.md, model-configuration.md, using-docker.md, migration/0.22.md, observability files): Consistent editorial rewrites replacing "NeMo Guardrails" with "the library" in running prose, replacing see with refer to, and switching Markdown table separators.
• docs/versions1.json: Adds 0.22.0 as the new preferred version and moves 0.21.0 to a non-preferred entry.

Confidence Score: 5/5

Documentation-only PR with no code changes; all cross-referenced files exist in the repository.

Every doc link added in the release notes resolves to an existing file in the repository. The version bump in project.json and versions1.json is consistent and correct. The only open question is whether the docs tooling treats a missing preferred key on the 0.21.0 entry the same as an explicit false, which is low-risk and easy to verify in the docs build.

docs/versions1.json — confirm the docs tooling interprets absence of the preferred key the same as false so the 0.21.0 entry is not inadvertently treated as the preferred version.

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
docs/about/release-notes.md	Expanded 0.22.0 release notes with new feature bullets and cross-links; one bullet in Documentation and Behavior Fixes still lacks PR references.
docs/versions1.json	Adds 0.22.0 as preferred version, but the old preferred entry for 0.21.0 is not marked preferred: false — relies on the absence of the flag which may or may not be the intended idiom.
docs/project.json	Version bumped from 0.21.0 to 0.22.0 — straightforward, no issues.
docs/migration/0.22.md	Heading renamed to Migrating to v0.22.0, version references updated from bare numbers to versioned strings, and link phrasing changed from see to refer to. No logic changes.
docs/about/supported-llms.md	Editorial wording updates only — no structural or factual changes.
docs/configure-rails/yaml-schema/model-configuration.md	Editorial rewrites: active voice, removal of bold list formatting, link phrasing.
docs/deployment/using-docker.md	Reformatted numbered steps from H3 sections to an ordered list and light editorial rewrites; no factual changes.
docs/observability/index.md	Minor wording update and table separator style fix.
docs/observability/metrics/reference.md	Table separator style updated from --- to
docs/observability/tracing/opentelemetry-logs.md	Editorial rewrites replacing product name with the library and table separator style fix.

Flowchart

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
flowchart TD
    A[0.22.0 Release Notes PR] --> B[docs/about/release-notes.md]
    A --> C[docs/versions1.json]
    A --> D[docs/project.json]
    A --> E[Supporting Docs — editorial only]

    B --> B1[Key Features\nLangChain optional · Azure OAI · IORails OTel · Usage reporting]
    B --> B2[Breaking Changes\nAsyncWorkQueue moved to IORails]
    B --> B3[Enhancements\nGLiNER PII NIM · LLMModel/LLMFramework protocols · nemoguardrails.testing]
    B --> B4[Documentation & Behavior Fixes\nAgent Middleware · missing-LLM warning · Colang tutorial]

    C --> C1[preferred: true to 0.22.0\n0.21.0 preferred field removed]
    D --> D1[version 0.21.0 to 0.22.0]

    E --> E1[supported-llms.md]
    E --> E2[configuration-reference.md]
    E --> E3[model-configuration.md]
    E --> E4[using-docker.md]
    E --> E5[migration/0.22.md]
    E --> E6[observability/* — 6 files]

Loading

Prompt To Fix All With AI

Fix the following 2 code review issues. Work through them one at a time, proposing concise fixes.

---

### Issue 1 of 2
docs/versions1.json:7-10
**Old preferred entry not cleared**

The 0.21.0 entry previously had `"preferred": true`, which was the signal that it was the current release. In the new file that field is simply absent from the 0.21.0 object. If the documentation tooling treats a missing `preferred` key the same as `false` this is fine, but if the tooling requires an explicit `"preferred": false` to deactivate the old preferred version, the 0.21.0 entry may still render as a preferred or default version. Worth confirming the docs build interprets absence and `false` identically.

### Issue 2 of 2
docs/about/release-notes.md:36-40
The first bullet in the "Key Features" section still uses the contraction `isn't` while the rest of the section uses the expanded form `is not`. All other updated files in this PR have already been normalized to `is not`.

```suggestion
- LangChain is now optional. `pip install nemoguardrails` no longer pulls
  LangChain or any provider-specific `langchain-*` packages. The NVIDIA NeMo
  Guardrails library ships with a built-in client that talks to
  OpenAI-compatible endpoints directly over `httpx`. Engines whose API is not
  OpenAI-compatible (Anthropic, Cohere, Vertex AI, Google Generative AI,
```

_{Reviews (5): Last reviewed commit: "docs: add missing items per feedback and..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between c98f7df and 6f1b219.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• docs/about/release-notes.md

---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The v0.22.0 release notes are expanded with detailed announcements across five major themes: LangChain becoming optional with a built-in OpenAI client, improved default OpenAI-compatible service support with Azure, observability enhancements for IORails and OpenTelemetry, anonymous usage reporting, and new public LLM integration protocols and testing utilities. A new "Documentation and Behavior Fixes" section documents corrected items. Previous release notes are consolidated into a link list.

Changes

v0.22.0 Release Notes Content

Layer / File(s)	Summary
v0.22.0 Features and Documentation/Behavior Fixes docs/about/release-notes.md	Expanded "Key Features" for v0.22.0 covering LangChain optionality, OpenAI-compatible service improvements including Azure support, IORails observability with OpenTelemetry, anonymous usage reporting, GLiNER PII connector updates, and new public LLM extension protocols and testing surface. "Documentation and Behavior Fixes" section documents corrections to Guardrails Agent Middleware output, LLM generation warning timing, and Colang tutorial fixes.
Previous Release Notes Archive docs/about/release-notes.md	Previous release notes reorganized from inlined v0.21.0 content into a condensed "Previous Release Notes" section with links to prior versions.

🎯 1 (Trivial) | ⏱️ ~3 minutes

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 6

✅ Passed checks (6 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title 'docs: elaborate more in release notes' is directly related to the main change, which expands the v0.22.0 release notes with detailed feature descriptions and new sections.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Test Results For Major Changes	✅ Passed	PR updates release notes documentation only (no code/tests). Documentation changes are minor per the check and do not require test results or numeric validation.

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✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch docs/prep-0.22

---

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[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.

📢 Thoughts on this report? Let us know!

[tgasser-nv]

@miyoungc Could you add the Breaking Changes section with the following bullet-point:

• Moving AsyncWorkQueue from Guardrails-level to IORails. This removes buffering for non-streaming requests for LLMRails when using the Guardrails top-level object. This only affects users setting NEMO_GUARDRAILS_IORAILS_ENGINE=1 or instantiating Guardrails directly.

[tgasser-nv]

@miyoungc could you add the missing IORails features?

[tgasser-nv]

Looks good!