- Add TOML 1.0 parsing on Python 3.11+, IPv6 support for Prefect server start, and authentication to the /api/events WebSocket endpoint; also make runner cancellation health‑observing and reload root settings after plugins.
- Fix polling fallback for FlowRunFuture.wait, race condition in ephemeral consumer group cleanup, missing end‑time on validation failures, and flow.run.id returning a string "None"; bump pydocket minimum version.
- Migrate deployments/runner, Task.serve, Flow.deploy and Runner methods to async dispatch, add CLI benchmark harness and workflow, and expand documentation for logging and task invocation.