release: Crawl4AI v0.8.5

Bump version to 0.8.5 across all references (Dockerfile, README,
Docker README, blog index, __version__.py).

Add release notes, blog post, demo verification script (13 real-crawl
tests), and releases directory entry.

Key highlights:
- Anti-bot detection with 3-tier proxy escalation
- Shadow DOM flattening
- Deep crawl cancellation
- Config defaults API
- 60+ bug fixes and critical security patches

Author: ntohidi

Dockerfile

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 FROM python:3.12-slim-bookworm AS build
 
 # C4ai version
-ARG C4AI_VER=0.8.0
+ARG C4AI_VER=0.8.5
 ENV C4AI_VERSION=$C4AI_VER
 LABEL c4ai.version=$C4AI_VER
 

README.md

@@ -37,11 +37,13 @@ Limited slots._
 
 Crawl4AI turns the web into clean, LLM ready Markdown for RAG, agents, and data pipelines. Fast, controllable, battle tested by a 50k+ star community.
 
-[✨ Check out latest update v0.8.0](#-recent-updates)
+[✨ Check out latest update v0.8.5](#-recent-updates)
 
-✨ **New in v0.8.0**: Crash Recovery & Prefetch Mode! Deep crawl crash recovery with `resume_state` and `on_state_change` callbacks for long-running crawls. New `prefetch=True` mode for 5-10x faster URL discovery. Critical security fixes for Docker API (hooks disabled by default, file:// URLs blocked). [Release notes →](https://github.com/unclecode/crawl4ai/blob/main/docs/blog/release-v0.8.0.md)
+✨ **New in v0.8.5**: Anti-Bot Detection, Shadow DOM & 60+ Bug Fixes! Automatic 3-tier anti-bot detection with proxy escalation, Shadow DOM flattening, deep crawl cancellation, config defaults API, consent popup removal, and critical security patches. [Release notes →](https://github.com/unclecode/crawl4ai/blob/main/docs/blog/release-v0.8.5.md)
 
-✨ Recent v0.7.8: Stability & Bug Fix Release! 11 bug fixes addressing Docker API issues, LLM extraction improvements, URL handling fixes, and dependency updates. [Release notes →](https://github.com/unclecode/crawl4ai/blob/main/docs/blog/release-v0.7.8.md)
+✨ Recent v0.8.0: Crash Recovery & Prefetch Mode! Deep crawl crash recovery with `resume_state` and `on_state_change` callbacks for long-running crawls. New `prefetch=True` mode for 5-10x faster URL discovery. [Release notes →](https://github.com/unclecode/crawl4ai/blob/main/docs/blog/release-v0.8.0.md)
+
+✨ Previous v0.7.8: Stability & Bug Fix Release! 11 bug fixes addressing Docker API issues, LLM extraction improvements, URL handling fixes, and dependency updates. [Release notes →](https://github.com/unclecode/crawl4ai/blob/main/docs/blog/release-v0.7.8.md)
 
 ✨ Previous v0.7.7: Complete Self-Hosting Platform with Real-time Monitoring! Enterprise-grade monitoring dashboard, comprehensive REST API, WebSocket streaming, and smart browser pool management. [Release notes →](https://github.com/unclecode/crawl4ai/blob/main/docs/blog/release-v0.7.7.md)
 

crawl4ai/__version__.py

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # crawl4ai/__version__.py
 
 # This is the version that will be used for stable releases
-__version__ = "0.8.0"
+__version__ = "0.8.5"
 
 # For nightly builds, this gets set during build process
 __nightly_version__ = None

deploy/docker/README.md

@@ -59,11 +59,11 @@ Pull and run images directly from Docker Hub without building locally.
 
 #### 1. Pull the Image
 
-Our latest stable release is `0.8.0`. Images are built with multi-arch manifests, so Docker automatically pulls the correct version for your system.
+Our latest stable release is `0.8.5`. Images are built with multi-arch manifests, so Docker automatically pulls the correct version for your system.
 
 ```bash
-# Pull the latest stable version (0.8.0)
-docker pull unclecode/crawl4ai:0.8.0
+# Pull the latest stable version (0.8.5)
+docker pull unclecode/crawl4ai:0.8.5
 
 # Or use the latest tag (points to 0.8.0)
 docker pull unclecode/crawl4ai:latest
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ EOL
       -p 11235:11235 \
       --name crawl4ai \
       --shm-size=1g \
-      unclecode/crawl4ai:0.8.0
+      unclecode/crawl4ai:0.8.5
     ```
 
 *   **With LLM support:**
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ EOL
       --name crawl4ai \
       --env-file .llm.env \
       --shm-size=1g \
-      unclecode/crawl4ai:0.8.0
+      unclecode/crawl4ai:0.8.5
     ```
 
 > The server will be available at `http://localhost:11235`. Visit `/playground` to access the interactive testing interface.
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ The `docker-compose.yml` file in the project root provides a simplified approach
     ```bash
     # Pulls and runs the release candidate from Docker Hub
     # Automatically selects the correct architecture
-    IMAGE=unclecode/crawl4ai:0.8.0 docker compose up -d
+    IMAGE=unclecode/crawl4ai:0.8.5 docker compose up -d
     ```
 
 *   **Build and Run Locally:**