Version 1.16 (2026-02-26)

In Nickel 1.16, unicode characters can be escaped in strings using the
\u{1f923} syntax. It also fixes a few bugs in the interpreter and the language
server, and has some performance improvements in the language server.

Core language

• Allow unicode escape sequences in string literals by @L0r3m1p5um in #2520

Tooling

• Fix panic when deserializing a too-large yaml number by @jneem in #2485
• Fix panic from unclosurized CLI overrides by @jneem in #2498
• Format nickel converted from other formats by @L0r3m1p5um in #2502
• Better localization of std.fail_with errors by @yannham in #2505
• Add a welcome message to the repl by @jneem in #2509
• Export NickelException in py-nickel. by @jneem in #2517

LSP

• Allow priority to be set for background evaluation in the LSP by @L0r3m1p5um in #2493
• Performance improvements for language server by @L0r3m1p5um in #2510
• Request cancellation for language server by @L0r3m1p5um in #2523
• Fix a missing closurization that was hiding some errors by @jneem in #2486

New Contributors

• @0mbi made their first contribution in #2477
• @i13e made their first contribution in #2489
• @idea-list made their first contribution in #2522

Full Changelog: 1.15.1...1.16.0